betwixt the Lydians and the Medes, which continued five years. It
was attended with various success; and it is remarkable that one of
their engagements took place in the night. In the sixth year, and
in the midst of an engagement, when neither side could reasonably
claim superiority, the day was suddenly involved in darkness. This
phenomenon, and the particular period at which it was to happen, had
been foretold to the Ionians by Thales the Milesian. Awed by the
solemnity of the event, the parties desisted from the engagement, and
it further influenced them both to listen to certain propositions
for peace, which were made by Syennesis of Cilicia, and Labynetus of
Babylon. To strengthen the treaty, these persons also recommended a
matrimonial connection. They advised that Alyattes should give Aryenis,
his daughter, to Astyages, son of Cyaxares, from the just conviction
that no political engagements are durable, unless strengthened by the
closest of all possible bonds. The ceremony of concluding alliances is
the same in this nation as in Greece, with this addition, that both
parties wound themselves in the arm, and lick each other’s blood.
Astyages, therefore, was the grandfather of Cyrus, though at this time
vanquished by him, and his captive. This was what excited the original
enmity of Crœsus, and prompted him to inquire of the oracle, whether
he should make war upon Persia. He interpreted the delusive reply
which was given him, in a manner the most favourable to himself, and
proceeded in his concerted expedition. When he arrived at the river
Halys, he passed over his forces on bridges, which he there found
constructed; although the Greeks in general assert that this service
was rendered him by Thales the Milesian. Whilst Crœsus was hesitating
over what part of the river he should attempt a passage, as there was
no bridge then constructed, Thales divided it into two branches. He
sunk a deep trench, which commencing above the camp, from the river,
was conducted round it in the form of a semicircle till it again met
the ancient bed. It thus became easily fordable on either side. There
are some who say, that the old channel was entirely dried up, to which
opinion I can by no means assent, for then their return would have been
equally difficult.
_Crœsus in Conflict with Cyrus_
Crœsus having passed over with his army, came into that part of
Cappadocia which is called Pteria, the best situated in point of
strength of all that district, and near the city of Sinope, on the
Euxine. He here fixed his station, and, after wasting the Syrian lands,
besieged and took the Pterians’ principal city. He destroyed also the
neighbouring towns, and almost exterminated the Syrians, from whom he
had certainly received no injury. Cyrus at length collected his forces,
and, taking with him those nations which lay betwixt himself and the
invader, advanced to meet him. Before he began his march, he despatched
emissaries to the Ionians, with the view of detaching them from Crœsus.
This not succeeding, he moved forward, and attacked Crœsus in his camp;
they engaged on the plains of Pteria, with the greatest ardour on both
sides. The battle was continued with equal violence and loss till night
parted the combatants, leaving neither in possession of victory.
The army of Crœsus being inferior in number, and Cyrus on the morrow
discovering no inclination to renew the engagement, the Lydian prince
determined to return to Sardis, intending to claim the assistance of
the Egyptians, with whose king, Amasis, he had formed an alliance,
previous to his treaty with the Lacedæmonians. He had also made an
offensive and defensive league with the Babylonians, over whom
Labynetus was then king. With these, in addition to the Lacedæmonian
aids, who were to be ready at a stipulated period, he resolved, after
spending a certain time in winter quarters, to attack the Persians
early in the spring. Full of these thoughts, Crœsus returned to Sardis,
and immediately sent messengers to his different allies, requiring them
to meet at Sardis, within the space of five months. The troops which he
had led against the Persians, being chiefly mercenaries, he disembodied
and dismissed, never supposing that Cyrus, who had certainly no claims
to victory, would think of following him to Sardis.
Whilst the mind of Crœsus was thus occupied, the lands near his capital
were infested with a multitude of serpents; and it was observed, that
to feed on these, the horses neglected and forsook their pastures.
Crœsus conceiving this to be of mysterious import, which it certainly
was, sent to make inquiry of the Telmessian priests concerning it.
The answer which his messengers received, explaining the prodigy,
they had no opportunity of communicating to Crœsus, for before they
could possibly return to Sardis, he was defeated and a captive. The
Telmessians had thus interpreted the incident:--that a foreign army
was about to attack Crœsus, on whose arrival the natives would be
certainly subdued; for as the serpent was produced from the earth, the
horse might be considered both as a foreigner and an enemy. When the
ministers of the oracle reported this answer to Crœsus, he was already
in captivity, of which, and of the events which accompanied it, they
were at that time ignorant.
Cyrus was well-informed that it was the intention of Crœsus, after the
battle of Pteria, to dismiss his forces; he conceived it therefore
advisable, to advance with all imaginable expedition to Sardis, before
the Lydian forces could again be collected. The measure was no sooner
concerted than executed; and conducting his army instantly into
Lydia, he was himself the messenger of his arrival. Crœsus, although
distressed by an event so contrary to his foresight and expectation,
lost no time in preparing the Lydians for battle. At that period no
nation of Asia was more hardy or more valiant than the Lydians. They
fought principally on horseback, armed with long spears, and were very
expert in the management of the horse.
The field of battle was a spacious and open plain in the vicinity of
Sardis, intersected by many streams, and by the Hyllus in particular,
all of which united with one larger than the rest, called the Hermus.
This, rising in the mountain, which is sacred to Cybele, finally
empties itself into the sea, near the city Phocæa. Here Cyrus found
the Lydians prepared for the encounter; and as he greatly feared the
impression of their cavalry, by the advice of Harpagus the Mede, he
took the following means to obviate the danger. He collected all the
camels which followed his camp, carrying the provisions and other
baggage; taking their burdens from these, he placed on them men
accoutred as horsemen. Thus prepared, he ordered them to advance
against the Lydian horse; his infantry were to follow in the rear
of the camels, and his own cavalry closed the order of the attack.
Having thus arranged his forces, he commanded that no quarter should
be granted to the Lydians, but that whoever resisted should be put
to death, Crœsus himself excepted, who, whatever opposition he might
make, was at all events to be taken alive. He placed his camels in
the van, knowing the hatred which a horse has to this animal, being
neither able to support the smell nor the sight of it. He was satisfied
that the principal dependence of Crœsus was on his cavalry, which he
hoped by this stratagem to render ineffective. The engagement had no
sooner commenced, than the horses seeing and smelling the camels,
threw their own ranks into disorder, to the total discomfiture of
Crœsus. Nevertheless the Lydians did not immediately surrender the day:
they discovered the stratagem, and quitting their horses, engaged the
Persians on foot; a great number of men fell on both sides; but the
Lydians were finally compelled to fly, and, retreating within their
walls, were there closely besieged.
_The Siege of Sardis_
Crœsus, believing the siege would be considerably protracted, sent
other emissaries to his different confederates. The tendency of his
former mission was to require their presence at Sardis within five
months. He now entreated the immediate assistance of his other allies,
in common with the Lacedæmonians.
Whilst the Spartans found themselves in a precarious situation, the
Sardian messenger arrived, relating the extreme danger of Crœsus,
and requesting their immediate assistance. This they without
hesitation resolved to give. Whilst they were making for this purpose,
preparations of men and ships, a second messenger brought intelligence
that Sardis was taken and Crœsus in captivity. Strongly impressed by
this wonderful calamity, the Lacedæmonians made no further efforts.
Sardis was thus taken: On the fourteenth day of the siege, Cyrus sent
some horsemen round his camp, promising a reward to him who should
first scale the wall. The attempt was made, but without success. After
which, a certain Mardian, whose name was Hyræades, made a daring effort
on a part of the citadel where no sentinel was stationed, it being so
strong and so difficult of approach as seemingly to defy all attack.
Around this place alone Meles had neglected to carry his son Leon, whom
he had by a concubine, the Telmessian priests having declared that
Sardis should never be taken if Leon were carried round the walls.
Leon, it seems, was carried by his father round every part of the
citadel which was exposed to attack. He omitted taking him round that,
which is opposite to Mount Tmolus, from the persuasion that its natural
strength rendered all modes of defence unnecessary. Here, however, the
Mardian had the preceding day observed a Lydian descend to recover his
helmet, which had fallen down the precipice. He revolved the incident
in his mind. He attempted to scale it; he was seconded by other
Persians, and their example followed by greater numbers. In this manner
was Sardis stormed, and afterwards given up to plunder.
_The Fate of Crœsus_
We have now to speak of the fate of Crœsus. He had a son, as I have
before related, who, though accomplished in other respects, was
unfortunately dumb. Crœsus, in his former days of good fortune, had
made every attempt to obtain a cure for this infirmity. Amongst other
things, he sent to inquire of the Delphic oracle. The Pythian returned
this answer:
Wide-ruling Lydian, in thy wishes wild,
Ask not to hear the accents of thy child;
Far better were his silence for thy peace,
And sad will be the day when that shall cease.
During the storm of the city a Persian, meeting Crœsus, was, through
ignorance of his person, about to kill him. The king overwhelmed by
his calamity, took no care to avoid the blow or escape death; but his
dumb son, when he saw the violent designs of the Persian, overcome
with astonishment and terror, exclaimed aloud, “Oh, man, do not kill
Crœsus!” This was the first time he had ever articulated, but he
retained the faculty of speech from this event, as long as he lived.
The Persians thus obtained possession of Sardis, and made Crœsus
captive, when he had reigned fourteen years and after a siege of
fourteen days; a mighty empire, agreeably to the prediction which had
deluded him, being then destroyed. The Persians brought him to the
presence of Cyrus, who ordered him to be placed in chains upon the
summit of an huge wooden pile, with fourteen Lydian youths around him.
He did this, either desirous of offering to some deity the first-fruits
of his victory, in compliance with a vow which he had made; or,
perhaps, anxious to know whether any deity would liberate Crœsus, of
whose piety he had heard much, from the danger of being consumed by
fire. When Crœsus stood erect upon the pile, although in this extremity
of misery, he did not forget the saying of Solon, which now appeared
of divine inspiration, that no living mortal could be accounted happy.
When the remembrance of this saying occurred to Crœsus, it is said,
that rousing himself from the profoundest silence of affliction, he
thrice pronounced aloud the name of Solon. Cyrus, hearing this, desired
by his interpreters to know who it was that he invoked. They approached
and asked him, but he continued silent. At length, being compelled to
explain himself, he said, “I named a man with whom I had rather that
all kings should converse, than be master of the greatest riches.” Not
being sufficiently understood, he was solicited to be more explicit; to
their repeated and importunate inquiries, he replied to this effect:
That Solon, an Athenian, had formerly visited him, a man who, when
he had seen all his immense riches, treated them with disdain; whose
sayings were at that moment verified in his fate--sayings which he had
applied not to him in particular, but to all mankind, and especially
to those who were in their own estimation happy. While Crœsus was
thus speaking the pile was lighted, and the flame began to ascend.
Cyrus being informed of what had passed, felt compunction for what he
had done. His heart reproached him, that being himself a mortal, he
had condemned to a cruel death by fire, a man formerly not inferior
to himself. He feared the anger of the gods, and reflecting that all
human affairs are precarious and uncertain, he commanded the fire to
be instantly extinguished, and Crœsus to be saved with his companions.
They could not, however, with all their efforts, extinguish the flames.
In this extremity, the Lydians affirm, that Crœsus, informed of the
change of the king’s sentiments in his favour by seeing the officious
but seemingly useless efforts of the multitude to extinguish the
flames, implored the assistance of Apollo, entreating, that if he had
ever made him any acceptable offering, he would now interpose and
deliver him from the impending danger. When Crœsus, with tears, had
thus invoked the god, the sky, which before was serene and tranquil,
suddenly became dark and gloomy, a violent storm of rain succeeded,
and the fire of the pile was extinguished. This event satisfied
Cyrus that Crœsus was both a good man in himself and a favourite of
Heaven: causing him to be taken down from the pile, “Crœsus,” said he,
addressing him, “what could induce you to invade my territories, and
become my enemy rather than my friend?” “O king,” replied Crœsus,
“it was the prevalence of your good and of my evil fortune which
prompted my attempt. I attacked your dominions, impelled and deluded
by the deity of the Greeks. No man can be so infatuated as not to
prefer tranquillity to war. In peace, children inter their parents;
war violates the order of nature, and causes parents to inter their
children. It must have pleased the gods that these things should so
happen.”
Cyrus immediately ordered him to be unbound, placed him near his
person, and treated him with great respect; indeed, he excited the
admiration of all who were present. After an interval of silent
meditation, Crœsus observed the Persians engaged in the plunder of
the city. “Does it become me, Cyrus,” said he, “to continue silent
on this occasion, or to speak the sentiments of my heart?” Cyrus
entreated him to speak without apprehension or reserve. “About what,”
he returned, “is that multitude so eagerly employed?”--“They are
plundering your city,” replied Cyrus, “and possessing themselves of
your wealth.”--“No,” answered Crœsus, “they do not plunder _my_ city,
nor possess themselves of _my_ wealth; I have no concern with either;
it is your property which they are thus destroying.”
These words disturbed Cyrus; desiring, therefore, those who were
present to withdraw, he asked Crœsus what measures he would recommend
in the present emergence. “The gods,” answered Crœsus, “have made me
your captive, and you are therefore justly entitled to the benefit of
my reflections. Nature has made the Persians haughty but poor. If you
permit them to indulge without restraint this spirit of devastation, by
which they may become rich, it is probable that your acquiescence may
thus foster a spirit of rebellion against yourself. I would recommend
the following mode to be adopted, if agreeable to your wisdom: station
some of your guards at each of the gates; let it be their business to
stop the plunderers with their booty, and bid them assign, as a reason,
that one-tenth part must be consecrated to Jupiter. Thus you will not
incur their enmity by any seeming violence of conduct; they will even
accede without reluctance to your views, under the impression of your
being actuated by pious motives.”
Cyrus was delighted with the advice, and immediately adopted it;
he stationed guards in the manner recommended by Crœsus, whom he
afterwards thus addressed: “Crœsus, your conduct and your words mark a
princely character. I desire you, therefore, to request of me whatever
you please, and your wish shall be instantly gratified.”--“Sir,”
replied Crœsus, “you will materially oblige me by permitting me to
send these fetters to the god of Greece, whom, above all other gods, I
have most honoured; and to inquire of him, whether it be his custom to
delude those who have claims upon his kindness.” When Cyrus expressed
a wish to know the occasion of this reproach, Crœsus ingenuously
explained each particular of his conduct, the oracles he had received,
and the gifts he had presented, declaring that these inspired
communications had alone induced him to make war upon the Persians. He
finished his narrative with again soliciting permission to send and
reproach the divinity which had deceived him. Cyrus smiled: “I will
not only grant this,” said he, “but whatever else you shall require.”
Crœsus accordingly despatched some Lydians to Delphi, who were
commissioned to place his fetters on the threshold of the temple, and
to ask if the deity were not ashamed at having, by his oracles, induced
Crœsus to make war on Persia, with the expectation of overturning the
empire of Cyrus, of which war these chains were the first-fruits:
and they were farther to inquire if the gods of Greece were usually
ungrateful.
The Lydians proceeded on their journey, and executed their commission;
they are said to have received the following reply from the Pythian
priestess: “That to avoid the determination of destiny was impossible
even for a divinity; that Crœsus, in his person, expiated the crimes
of his ancestor in the fifth descent; who, being a guardsman of the
Heraclidæ, was seduced by the artifice of a woman to assassinate
his master, and without the remotest pretensions succeeded to his
dignities; that Apollo was desirous to have this destruction of Sardis
fall on the descendants of Crœsus, but was unable to counteract the
decrees of fate; that he had really obviated them as far as was
possible, and, to show his partiality to Crœsus, had caused the ruin of
Sardis to be deferred for the space of three years; that of this Crœsus
might be assured that if the will of the fates had been punctually
fulfilled, he would have been three years sooner a captive: neither
ought he to forget that when in danger of being consumed by fire Apollo
had afforded him his succour; that with respect to the declaration of
the oracle, Crœsus was not justified in his complaints; for Apollo
had declared that if he made war against the Persians a mighty empire
would be overthrown; the real purport of which communication, if he
had been anxious to understand, it became him to have inquired whether
the god alluded to his empire, or to the empire of Cyrus; but that,
not understanding the reply which had been made, nor condescending
to make a second inquiry, he had been himself the cause of his own
misfortune: that he had not at all comprehended the last answer of the
oracle, which related to the mule; for that this mule was Cyrus, who
was born of two parents of two different nations, of whom the mother
was as noble as the father was mean; his mother was a Mede, daughter of
Astyages, king of the Medes; his father was a Persian, and tributary to
the Medes, who, although a man of the very meanest rank, had married
a princess, who was his mistress.” This answer of the Pythian, the
Lydians, on their return, communicated to Crœsus. Crœsus, having heard
it, exculpated the deity, and acknowledged himself to be reprehensible.
Such, however was the termination of the empire of Crœsus, and this the
recital of the first conquest of Ionia.[e]
FOOTNOTES
[15] The story of Rosamond, queen of the Lombards, as related by Mr.
Gibbon, bears so exact a resemblance to this of Candaules, that I am
unable to forego the pleasure of transcribing it.--“The queen of Italy
had stooped from her throne to the arms of a subject: and Helmichis,
the king’s armour-bearer, was the secret minister of her pleasure and
revenge. Against the proposal of the murder he could no longer urge
the scruples of fidelity or gratitude; but Helmichis trembled when he
revolved the danger, as well as the guilt. He pressed, and obtained,
that one of the bravest champions of the Lombards should be associated
to the enterprise: but no more than a promise of secrecy could be drawn
from the gallant Perideus.--The mode of seduction employed by Rosamond
betrays her shameless insensibility both to honour and to love. She
supplied the place of one of her female attendants, who was beloved
by Perideus, and contrived some excuse for darkness and silence, till
she could inform her companion that he had enjoyed the queen of the
Lombards, and that his own death, or the death of the king, must be
the consequence of such treasonable adultery. In this alternative he
chose rather to be the accomplice than the victim of Rosamond, whose
undaunted spirit was incapable of fear or remorse.”--TRANSLATOR.
BRIEF REFERENCE-LIST OF AUTHORITIES BY CHAPTERS
[The letter [a] is reserved for Editorial Matter.]
CHAPTER I. THE HITTITES
[b] CHARLES W. SUPER, from an article “A Decade of Hittite Research,”
in the _American Antiquarian_. Chicago, 1891. Vol. XXI.
[c] FRITZ HOMMEL, _Die Semitischen Völker und Sprachen_.
[d] EDUARD MEYER, _Geschichte des Alterthums_.
[e] ERNEST BABELON, _Manuel d’archéologie orientale_.
[f] PAUL KAROLIDES, _Die sogenannte Assyro-Chaldäer und Hittiten von
Kleinasien_.
[g] A. H. SAYCE, _Monuments of the Hittites_.
[h] Anonymous so-called Poem of Pentaur.
[i] H. C. BRUGSCH, _Thesaurus Inscriptionum Ægyptiarum_.
[j] PERROT and CHIPIEZ, _Histoire de l’art dans l’antiquité_.
[k] XANTHUS, _Lydiaca_.
CHAPTER II. SCYTHIANS AND CIMMERIANS
[b] PAUL KAROLIDES, _op. cit._
[c] GEORGE GROTE, _History of Greece_.
[d] HERODOTUS, _The History of Herodotus_ (translated from the Greek by
William Beloe).
[e] EDUARD MEYER, _op. cit._
[f] THUCYDIDES, _The History of the Peloponnesian War_ (translated from
the Greek by Hobbes).
[g] STRABO, _Γεωγραφικά_.
CHAPTER III. SOME PEOPLES OF SYRIA, ASIA MINOR, AND ARMENIA
[b] MAX DUNCKER, _Geschichte des Alterthums_.
[c] A. SOCIN, the article on “Syria,” in the _Encyclopædia Britannica_.
[d] The Holy Bible.
[e] STRABO, _op. cit._
[f] HERODOTUS, _op. cit._
[g] XANTHUS, _op. cit._
[h] XENOPHON, _Anabasis_.
CHAPTER IV. THE LYDIANS
[b] PAUL KAROLIDES, _op. cit._
[c] GEORGE RADET, _La Lydie et le monde grec au temps des Mermnades_.
[d] A. H. SAYCE, from the article on “Lydia,” in the _Encyclopædia
Britannica_.
[e] NICOLAS OF DAMASCUS, in _Fragmenta Historicorum Græcorum_, Fragment
4.
[f] J. A. CRAMER, _Description of Asia Minor_.
[g] HERODOTUS, _op. cit._
[h] PLINIUS SECUNDUS, _Historia Naturalis_.
[i] STRABO, _op. cit._
[j] STEPHANUS BYZANTINUS, _Ethnica_.
[k] DEMETRIUS OF SCEPSIS, Τρωικὸς διάκοσμος.
[l] XANTHUS, _op. cit._
[m] H. C. BRUGSCH, _Geschichte Ægyptens unter den Pharaonen_.
[n] H. SCHLIEMANN, _Ilios_.
APPENDIX A. CLASSICAL TRADITIONS
[b] JUSTIN, _History of the World_ (translated from the Latin by T.
Brown).
[c] POMPONIUS MELA, _The Rare and Singular Works of Pomponius Mela_
(translated from the Latin byA. Golding).
[d] DIODORUS SICULUS, _The Historical Library_ (translated from the
Greek by G. Booth).
[e] HERODOTUS, _op. cit._
A GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE HISTORY OF THE MINOR NATIONS OF WESTERN
ASIA
BASED ON THE WORKS QUOTED, CITED, OR EDITORIALLY CONSULTED IN THE
PREPARATION OF THE PRESENT HISTORY
The nations of Asia Minor, having a relatively unimportant position,
have naturally not attracted the attention of historians to any such
extent as their more important contemporaries. The Hittites, as already
noted, are mentioned a few times in the Hebrew writings, and are
referred to explicitly in the Egyptian records of Ramses the Great.
But they had passed from the scene before the advent of the Greek
historians, which fact accounts largely for the infrequent reference
to them in modern times, until the decipherment of the Egyptian and
Assyrian records brought them again to notice. A peculiar interest
attaches to the Hittites now, since their own monuments have shown
that they possessed a unique form of hieroglyphic writing. Professor
Sayce has investigated this perhaps more fully than any other scholar;
but various others have entered into controversies as to its exact
character,--controversies which as yet have led to no very definite
conclusion.
[Illustration: HITTITE HIEROGLYPHICS]
Of the other nations of Asia Minor, the Lydians have received most
attention from the historian. The chief known sources for Lydian
history were the native historian Xanthus, whose works have mostly
failed to come down to us; and Herodotus, whose stories of the Lydian
kings, no doubt somewhat embellished, have been a source of interest
to all subsequent investigators. In recent times special works on the
Lydians have been written by Radet and by Schubert. Numerous travellers
have given us more or less valuable notes on Asia Minor, chiefly of a
geographical and archæological character. The best general treatment
of the subject is to be found in the histories of antiquity of Duncker
and Eduard Meyer. Duncker’s treatment is more popular, but in some
respects not quite up to date. Eduard Meyer’s treatment is at once
scientific and philosophical, but the first volume of his work has been
out of print for some time, and the promised new edition is not yet
forthcoming. The new archæological finds have given a fresh interest to
the nations of Asia Minor, which will probably result in a much more
voluminous literature on the subject in the near future.
=Ainsworth=, W. F., Travels and Researches in Asia Minor, London, 1842.
* * * * *
=Babelon=, E. Manuel, d’archéol. orientale, Paris, 1888.--=Baer=, K.
E. von, Historische Fragen, 1873.--=Barkley=, A Ride through Asia
Minor and Armenia, London, 1891.--=Belck=, W., Beiträge zur alten
Geog. und Gesch. Vorderasiens, Leipsic, 1901.--=Belgiojoso=, C. di T.,
Asie mineure et Syrie: Souvenirs de Voyages, Paris, 1858.--=Bergmann=,
F. H., Les Amazones dans l’histoire et dans la fable, Colmar,
1858.--=Bertacchi=, C., L’Asie Minore: L’oriente e gli Armeni,
Messina, 1896.--=Billerbeck=, A., Eine Studie zur alten Geschichte
Westasiens, Leipsic, 1893.--=Brockes=, F., Quer durch Kleinasien,
Gütersloh, 1900.--=Brunnhofer=, H., Vom Pontus bis zum Indus,
Leipsic, 1890.--=Bukowski=, Y. von, Die geologischen Verhältnisse
der Umgebung von Balia Maaden im nordwestl. Kleinasien (Mysien),
Leipsic, 1892.--=Buresch=, K., Aus Lydien: Epigraphisch-geographische
Reiseberichte (herausg. von O. Ribbeck), Leipsic, 1898.--=Burnaby=, F.,
On Horseback through Asia Minor, London, 1898.
* * * * *
=Campbell=, John, The Hittites: their Inscriptions, their History,
Toronto, 1890, and London, 1891.--=Cara=, P. Cesare A. de, Gli
Hethei-Pelasgi, Rome, 1894.--=Choisy=, A., L’Asie Mineure et les Turcs
en 1875 (in Revue Archéol., nouv. sér., Vol. XXXII, Paris).--=Conder=,
C. R., Heth and Moab, London, 1885; The Hittites and their Language,
Edinburgh, 1898.--=Cramer=, J. A., A Geographical and Historical
Description of Asia Minor, Oxford, 1832, 2 vols.--=Curtius=, E.,
Beiträge zur Geschichte und Topographie Kleinasiens, Berlin, 1872.
* * * * *
=Davis=, E. J., Anatolica, London, 1874.--=Diodorus Siculus=, The
Historical Library, London, 1700.--=Duncker=, Max, Geschichte des
Alterthums, Leipsic, 1855-1877, 6 vols.
* * * * *
=Fellows=, Charles, An Account of Discoveries in Lycia, London, 1841;
Travels and Researches in Asia Minor, London, 1852.--=Fradenburgh=, J.
N., Old Heroes: The Hittites, New York, 1899.--=Fréret=, N., Recherches
sur la chronologie de l’histoire de Lydie (in Mém. Acad. Inscr.),
Paris, 1725.--=Fressl=, J., Skythen Saken, Munich, 1886.
* * * * *
=Gelzer=, J. H., Das Zeitalter des Gyges (im Rhein. Museum, Vol. XXXV),
1880.--=Georgiades=, Smyrne et l’Asie Mineure, Paris, 1885.--=Goltz=,
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* * * * *
=Halévy=, J., Introduction au déchiffrement des inscriptions
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Strassburg, 1816, 5 vols.--=Herwegh=, D., Cogitationes philologicæ
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Kleinasien und Nordsyrien, Berlin, 1890.
* * * * *
=Jensen=, Peter, Hittiter und Armenier, Strassburg, 1898.--=Justinus=,
Historiarum Philippicarum Libri XLIV, Venice, 1470. An epitome of
Trogus Pompeius.
* * * * *
=Kärger=, Kleinasien, Berlin, 1892.--=Karolides=, Paul, Die
sogenannten Assyro-Chaldäer und Hittiten von Kleinasien, Athens,
1898.--=Kiepert=, H., Spezialkarte vom westlichen Kleinasien, Berlin,
1890.--=Kretschmer=, P., Einleitung in die Geschichte der griechischen
Sprache, Göttingen, 1896.
* * * * *
=Lanckoronski=, C., Les villes de la Pamphylie et de la Lydie, Paris,
1890.--=Langlois=, S. A., Voyage dans la Cilicie et dans les montagnes
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Grieksche Opschriften uit Klein-Azie, Amsterdam, 1890.--=Lennep=, H.
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vols.--=Lenormant=, F., Monnaies royales de la Lydie, Paris, 1876; La
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* * * * *
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* * * * *
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* * * * *
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* * * * *
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* * * * *
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* * * * *
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* * * * *
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* * * * *
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London, 1890; Catalogue of the Greek Coins of Mysia, London, 1892.
PART VII
THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT INDIA
BASED CHIEFLY UPON THE FOLLOWING AUTHORITIES
ARRIAN, GUSTAV LE BON, EUGENE BURNOUF, MOUNTSTUART
ELPHINSTONE, A. H. L. HEEREN, W. W. HUNTER,
SIR W. JONES, FERDINAND JUSTI, SALOMAN
LEFMANN, JAMES MILL, THE VEDAS,
H. H. WILSON
WITH ADDITIONAL CITATIONS FROM
CESARE CANTU, H. T. COLEBROKE, T. W. RHYS DAVIDS, MAX
DUNCKER, FA-HIAN AND HWEN TSANG, J. FERGUSSON,
HANNO, HERODOTUS, B. H. HODGSON, CHRISTIAN
LASSEN, PLINIUS SECUNDUS, GEORG WEBER
COPYRIGHT, 1904,
BY HENRY SMITH WILLIAMS.
_All rights reserved._
PART VII.--ANCIENT INDIA
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
INDIAN HISTORY IN OUTLINE 475
CHAPTER I. LAND AND PEOPLE 482
CHAPTER II. INDIAN HISTORY--LEGEND AND REALITY 493
CHAPTER III. MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE ANCIENT HINDUS 508
CHAPTER IV. BRAHMANISM AND BUDDHISM 525
BRIEF REFERENCE-LIST OF AUTHORITIES BY CHAPTERS 549
A GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF INDIAN HISTORY 550
INDIAN HISTORY IN OUTLINE
A PRELIMINARY SURVEY, COMPRISING A CURSORY VIEW OF THE SWEEP OF EVENTS
AND A TABLE OF CHRONOLOGY
The important place which India holds in recent history combines with
the fascination of its mysteries to give this country an interest
in the eyes of the modern historian which it never held previously
to the last century. Thus one finds that in the most recent German
_Weltgeschichte_ the history of ancient India is given almost as
much space as is devoted to the entire history of ancient Greece
or Rome. Whereas, to point a contrast, it may be noted that in the
classical _Weltgeschichte_ of Schlosser, written half a century ago,
the history of India is allotted only about a dozen pages. It may
fairly be held that in each of these cases there is a lack of true
historical perspective, for, whereas it would be absurd to claim
that India receives anything like just treatment in the condensed
summary of Schlosser, it would be equally absurd to claim that the
actual world-historic merit of India is at all comparable--from a
European standpoint--to that of Greece or Rome. But questions of exact
importance aside, the facts just cited evidence a growing realisation
of the importance of the oriental branch of the great Aryan tree. They
show among other things that the Western mind is being aroused from
that standpoint of insular dogmatism on which it placed itself with
such seeming security.
It is a hopeful sign of the times, for it suggests that the hour is
near at hand when it will be generally demanded of the historian who
attempts to deal with general history that he shall look out upon the
world not with the eyes of a narrow European partisanship, but with
true cosmopolitanism. When this is done it will become more and more
evident that a great people of the Orient, who had attained the highest
stage of culture, had developed an extraordinary literature, and
achieved the height of an amazing practical philosophy at least half a
millennium before the beginning of our era, are not to be treated with
contempt because their conceptions of religion and their estimate of
the right ideals of practical civilisation differ from our own. To such
a clarified view the position given to the history of India in the work
just referred to must manifestly tend.
It must be admitted, however, that whatever the interest attaching
to Indian history, almost insuperable difficulties stand in the way
of a clear interpretation of that history. The country itself is of
enormous size, comprising about a million and a half of square miles,
and giving residence to a population estimated at some two hundred and
forty millions. This enormous population is made up of a great variety
of races, the origin of which is altogether obscure. When one speaks
of the history of ancient India, one practically ignores all these
indigenous races, and refers merely to the invading hosts of so-called
Aryans that came into the country from the northwest and finally became
dominant there. How greatly these invaders were modified as a race by
their contact with the native hordes of India, is evidenced in the wide
gap that separates the Aryan of India to-day from the Aryan of Europe.
As to the exact time when the Aryan invasion occurred, all is obscure.
Nor is anything definite known of the history of conquest, and the
subsequent development of the race in India, except such merely
inferential glimpses as may be gained through study of the Vedas. India
was indeed known to the western world from a very early period. We have
seen that the Assyrian monuments depict animals unmistakably of Indian
origin, as being brought in tribute to the court of Shalmaneser II. But
neither these nor any other records of the western world suffice to
throw any light whatever upon the real history of India or give us any
knowledge of the country beyond the mere proof that its existence was
known, until so relatively late a period as the conquest of Alexander.
After that time the West and the East were in closer contact.
Seleucus, a general of Alexander’s and the inheritor of the chief part
of his Asiatic territories, entered into diplomatic relations with
an Indian Raja, Chandragupta by name, who had driven the Macedonian
garrisons from the Punjab and proved himself too formidable to be
conquered. The ambassador sent by Seleucus to the court of the
Raja was named Megasthenes. The Greek appears to have been greatly
impressed with what he saw of Indian life, for he wrote an enthusiastic
description of the manners and customs of the Indian people. This
account would appear to have circulated widely in the Grecian world,
and to have afforded one of the sources for the accounts of India
given at a later day by Diodorus and Arrian; but, unfortunately, the
original has not come down to us. Its loss was probably due, in part,
at any rate, to the excellence of Arrian’s work. Arrian drew also upon
the account of India written by Nearchus, the general who commanded
Alexander’s fleet.
No doubt there were other writers of the time of Alexander and the
immediately succeeding period who wrote on India, but if so, their
works, like those of Megasthenes and Nearchus, were superseded by the
famous work of Arrian, which, as has been pointed out by Professor
Lefmann, was for many centuries regarded as the most authoritative
book on the subject. Arrian, it will be recalled, was also the author
of the most authoritative life of Alexander the Great. It is not
quite clear that his _Indica_ was originally intended as a separate
production; in any event, it naturally grew out of the history of
Alexander. There is no reason to suppose that Arrian had visited India,
but his recognised merits as a careful historian give a high degree of
reliability to his work as evidencing the best knowledge of his time.
It must be understood, however, that this knowledge had referred almost
exclusively to the manners and customs of India, throwing almost no
light whatever on the sweep of historical events.
Turning to India itself, we find that almost no historical documents
except the religious books have come down from antiquity. The one
bright spot in Indian history of a relatively early period is furnished
by the reign of King Asoka.[16] Asoka lived about the middle of the
third century B.C. He was a great conqueror, and appears to have
brought a large part of India under his sway. His famous edict was
engraved on rocks and pillars throughout his domain. These edicts are
chiefly concerned with the practical enforcement of the duties enjoined
by the Buddhist faith.
[Illustration: A SPECIMEN OF AN ASOKA INSCRIPTION: MATHIA PILLAR]
“Seventeen versions of the edicts of Asoka have been discovered,” says
Taylor. “They are engraved on rocks and pillars in all parts of India,
and there are several inscriptions of dedication on caves or rock-cut
temples which were constructed by him. There are also six pillar
inscriptions, of which the best known are those at Delhi and Allahabad.
On five of the pillars are inscribed the six edicts promulgated in
the year 236 B.C., while the rock inscriptions contain copies, more
or less complete, of the fourteen earlier edicts which date from 251
B.C. One of the most perfect covers the face of a huge granite boulder,
seventy-five feet in length and twelve in height, at Girnar, near
Junagarh, in Gujarat. There is another copy at Dhauli; a fourth, in a
different alphabet, at Kapur-di-giri, on the frontiers of Afghanistan;
and a fifth, four hundred miles to the southeast, at Khalsi. There are
also six rock inscriptions, containing single edicts. An imperfect
fragment, on which the well-known title of Asoka can however be read,
has been brought from Ceylon.
“The wide range of these inscriptions shows the extent of the dominion
or supremacy of Asoka. They are found from Gujarat on the western coast
to Orissa on the east; as far north as Peshawar, as far south as the
boundary of the Madras Presidency, if not even in Ceylon. They range
over fifteen degrees of longitude, and twenty-seven of latitude.”[17]
Aside from their interest as historical documents, these inscriptions
of Asoka had the greatest importance in giving an insight into the
literature of India; for it was through them that the Indian alphabet
was interpreted by Princeps. “The Delhi pillar and the granite boulder
at Girnar,” says Taylor, “may fairly take their place in the history of
epigraphy beside the bilingual inscription of Malta, the Rosetta Stone,
and the rock of Behistun.” Unfortunately, the later rulers of India did
not follow the example of Asoka, and his inscriptions are almost unique
among the epigraphic remains of India.
It will be evident then, that classical literature and monumental
remains give but brief glimpses of the actual history of early India.
It follows that no full knowledge of this subject is, or perhaps ever
can be, available.
2000 B.C. The Indians are that branch of the Indo-European family
which moved from the west into the tableland of Iran, the
valley of the Indus, and the Punjab. Here they were the
first of their family to attain to a higher civilisation
than their brothers. The members of this branch called
themselves Aryans, “the noble” or “the ruling.” In their new
home they found a race of black people, which was enslaved
or expelled.
The sole evidence of their early life is the Rig-Veda, from
which it appears that the knowledge of effectual invocations
and sacrifices to the gods was in possession of certain
families.
1500 They slowly push their way along the spurs of the
Himalayas into the valley of the Ganges, whose aborigines
were enslaved or driven into the Himalayas on the north and
the Deccan on the south.
In the struggle with the natives the separate tribes are
amalgamated into larger communities; the small unions of
tribes become nations, which divide the land of the Ganges
among themselves; the tribal chiefs are changed into
military leaders, and the successful leaders become the
heads of important states. This took a considerable amount
of time. There were the Matsyas on the west bank of the
Jumna; the Surasenas, who lived in the cities of Mathura
and Krishnapura, and the afterwards united kingdoms of the
Bharatas and Panchalas on the Jumna and Ganges. These were
governed at Hastinapura. Farther to the east and north
were the Kosalas whose capital was Ajodhya; the Videhas of
Mithila. On the Ganges were the Kasis, capital Varanasi
(Benares), the Angas at Champa (Bhagalpur), and south of the
river was the kingdom of the Magadhas, the most important on
the Ganges, with the capital at Rajagriha.
1400 This is the approximate beginning of the dynastic
periods for most of the kingdoms on the Ganges. Of the
kingdom of Magadha:
=Brihadratha= reported to be the first king.
His third successor was =Somapi=, the first of the
Barhadrathas.
1300 Somapi, the first of the Barhadratha dynasty.
There are about thirty kings of this dynasty. The last one,
=Ripunjaya=, dies about 800 B.C. They rule at Rajagriha.
1400 =Kuru=, evidently the first dynastic king of the
Bharatas.
The name of the royal family passes over to the people, and
they are henceforth known as the Kurus.
The Kurus are the first to establish extensive dominion over
the tribes of the Upper Ganges, and they drive eastward the
tribes which were once united to them and had followed them
into the Jumna valley,--the Kosalas, Angas, Videhas, and
Magadhas.
It is the struggles of these tribes against the Kurus which
are described in the _Mahabharata_.
The Pandus, a younger race than the Kurus, and who have
become prominent among the Panchalas, rise in rebellion. The
Pandus have many allies. The Kurus disappear in a great war
shortly before 1200 B.C., and the kings of Pandu ascend the
throne of Hastinapura. They hold it for thirty generations,
governing at Hastinapura.
1200 Shortly after the great war, =Parikshit= comes to
the united Kuru (Bharata)--Pandu (Panchala) throne. He
reigns sixty years in Hastinapura, and dies (according to
tradition) from the bite of a snake.
The origin of the kingdom of Kosala was probably of a
somewhat later date than that of Magadha and Bharata. The
people looked to =Manu= as their first king, and reckoned
one hundred and sixteen kings from him to =Prasenajit=
(600-550 B.C.). The age 1400-1200 B.C. is that of the
arrangement of the kingdoms, the establishment of the
position of the nobles, the rise of the Kshattriyas--the
warrior caste.
Their organised kingdoms show a striking contrast to the
condition of those Aryans who remained in the Indus region.
We have no knowledge of their fortunes except that most of
them retained their tribal life without kings. “The people,”
says Duncker, “show not the least interest in preserving the
memory of their actions or fortunes.”
1200-1000 is approximately the period of the formation of
the castes. These were:
(1) The priests or Brahmans--families who had kept to
themselves knowledge of the prayers, rites, and sacrifices
of the religion since the old days.
(2) The Kshattriyas--or warriors (the Rajputs of the present
day), among whom were the rulers of the kingdoms.
(3) The Vaisyas--or husbandmen.
(4) The Sudras--a non-Aryan servile class (the Dasas of the
Rig-Veda), the remnant of the aboriginal tribes.
These castes gradually become separate and distinct.
Intermarriage ceases and each keeps to its hereditary
employments. As yet the Kshattriyas are the most important,
but the priests are slowly influencing the people to the
idea that the relations of men to the gods transcend all the
other relations of life, thereby pushing themselves into the
first place.
The kingdoms on the Ganges continue as in the preceding
epoch. Under king =Nichahra= the capital of the Pandus
(Bharatas) is removed from Hastinapura to Kausambi, lower
down the Ganges.
In the Punjab and the land of the Indus, a considerable
number of principalities have arisen among the kingless
tribes. There are also some nations governed by overseers
of cantons, heads of cities and districts. Among the
states that of Kashmir is the most important. About 1000
B.C. we know there is a brisk trade between the Upper
and Lower Indus. Phœnician ships bring home gold and
sandal-wood, obtained from the Upper Indus. The process
of caste-formation has not gone on to any extent in these
regions, and there are now no links between the people of
the Indus and the Ganges.
1000-800 Era of the struggle for supremacy between the priests
and nobles. At its close the Brahmans have been raised to
the first order, and the severest known class distinctions
in history have become established--distinctions which are
in force at the present day. The supremacy of the priesthood
is due to the new religious view it developed--the discovery
of the idea of Brahma which takes place about 1000 B.C. This
idea was evolved from the mysterious secret of worship, the
spirit of prayer, and the phenomena of birth and decay.
Behind these phenomena lies a single soul--the world soul.
From this soul they arrive at a deity, the cause and basis
of the world. This deity is Brahma. It drives out the
ancient gods. A rigid system of the universe is developed
in which the most spiritual beings stand nearest to Brahma,
while the most material are the most remote. We have no
knowledge as to the resistance made by the Kshattriyas
to these ideas, but they are accepted by the people, and
the Brahmans as being the most spiritual of the people,
attain the first place, and the whole terrible system of
Brahmanism, involving the rise of the people to spirituality
through continuous regeneration, and its complicated
800 system of reward and punishment, comes into effect. Although
they have the first place, the Brahmans do not interfere
with the ruling power in the hands of the Kshattriyas. The
monarchs are in full possession of despotic power, and are
used by the priests to hold their rule. The Brahmans draw
up the customs of family law, marriage and inheritance,
of the rights and duties of the castes. The new system is
not universally adopted. Even on the Ganges some districts
resisted the new system and held to their ancient laws
and customs. In the Indus only a few regions followed the
development.
800 The territory of the Jumna and Ganges has become the
“Sacred Land.”
800-600 Era of development of Indian philosophy. The people
give themselves to the study of worship and dogma under the
Brahmanic system.
800 The dynasty of Pradyota succeeds the Barhadrathas on the
throne of Magadha.
The rulers of this and the other kingdoms are thorough
despots who oppress their people greatly and force severe
taxes and exactions from them.
665 The Saisunaga dynasty succeeds the Pradyota on the
throne of Magadha.
The first two kings are =Kshemadharman= and =Bhattya=.
603 =Bimbisara= succeeds to the throne.
In his reign justice, morals, and religion are regulated in
Magadha and neighbouring states, according to the Brahmanic
system.
560 Birth of Prince Sarvathasiddha (Siddartha) son of
Suddhodana, king of the petty principality of Kapilavastu.
He belonged to the race of the Sakyas, which had emigrated
from the delta of the Indus to the land of the Kosalas.
550 =Ajatasatru= succeeds Bimbisara--is said to have put him
to death.
=Prasenajit=, twenty-third ruler of the Kosalas after the
great war, is their king and rules at Sravasti, a new city
they had built to the north of Ajodhya, the ancient capital.
=Vatsa=, son of Satanika, the twenty-fifth successor of
Parikshit, is king of the Bharatas (Panchalas-Pandus) at
their new capital Kausambi.
The life of these kings is one of great magnificence and
luxury. Their palaces are gorgeous and their harems numerous.
540 According to Arrian, Cyrus the Great reaches the Indus
on his march. This has never been substantiated, though
it is probable that he compelled the nations on the right
bank of the river to pay tribute when he reached Gedrosia
(Baluchistan).
532 Renunciation of the world by Siddartha.
522 He begins to preach his doctrines at Varanasi (Benares).
He is henceforth known as Buddha “the Enlightened.” He
preaches the reformed doctrine known as Buddhism. It points
out a way of escape from the terrible consequences of the
Brahmanical system by the suppression of desire. It ends in
the negation of existence--Nirvana.
It does not thrive in India owing to its abstractness
and morbid views of life as well as by the competition
of Sivaism and Vishnuism. But in modified form it has
flourished in Afghanistan, Tibet, and China.
519 =Udayabhadra= murders his father, Ajatasatru, and
succeeds him.
512 Darius subjugates the tribes on the right bank of the
Indus north of the Kabul. In the reorganisation of the
Persian empire, the territory becomes a satrapy, and is
said to have paid the highest tribute in the whole empire.
The Persian dominion does not seem to have had any deep
influence on the life of the Aryans, and it is uncertain
whether it continued until the coming of Alexander the Great.
503 =Anuruddhaka= murders his father Udayabhadra and
succeeds him.
495 =Nagadasaka= murders his father Anuruddhaka, and
succeeds him.
480 Death of Buddha.
471 Nagadasaka is dethroned by the people and =Sisunaga=, a
son of Ajatasatru, formerly a vassal king of the Vrijis, is
put in his place.
453 =Kalasoka=, his son, succeeds him. He leaves the capital
Rajagriha for a new one he has built--Pataliputra (the
Palibothra of Megasthenes) at the confluence of the Sonu and
Ganges.
After the reign of Ajatasatru the kings of Magadha increase
their power and dominions, and the states to the north and
west of Magadha gradually become a part of that kingdom.
450 The Pandu dynasty of Bharata comes to an end, whereby
the Panchalas and Surasenas become subject to the king of
Magadha.
500-400 The conquests and emigrations of the Aryans extend
to the Deccan and Ceylon.
The pearls and coral found in these localities give a new
impetus to trade.
425 Kalasoka is succeeded by three sons, ruling in
succession.
403 =Nanda=, the head of a robber band, organises an army,
attacks and captures Pataliputra, murders =Pinjamakha=
the king, and ascends the throne. He and his descendants
keeping the kingdom intact, reign until 340, when
340 =Dasasiddhika= is murdered by his wife’s paramour,
Indradatta, who puts his son =Dhanananda= on the throne.
This king is the =Xandrames= or =Agrames= of Greek writers,
and his realm is called the kingdom of the Prasians
(Prachyas or Gangarides). He is said to have acquired great
wealth, and kept an enormous army.
The power of Magadha is at its height.
327 Alexander the Great begins the conquest of the Aryans on
the right bank of the Indus. He captures Pushkala after a
siege of thirty days and overpowers the Gandarians.
After a stubborn resistance, the Asvakas (the Assacanes,
Aspasians, or Hippasians of the Greeks) are subjugated
during the winter.
326 Early in the year Alexander prepares to cross the
Indus. =Mophis=, the ruler of Takahasila (Greek Taxiles),
surrenders without resistance. The king of Kashmir sends his
brother to announce submission, and several smaller princes
come in person to give homage.
Alexander advances to the Vitasta (Hydaspes, modern
Jhelum) river, and meets the army of =King Porus=, whose
territory extends to the Asikni. Porus has been promised the
assistance of the king of Kashmir, in spite of the latter’s
submission to the Macedonian. Before this help arrives
Alexander defeats Porus, but restores him to his throne
and increases his power by assigning him some conquered
territory. The king of Kashmir now comes in person to give
homage. The Asvakas revolt and the Khattias, assisted by
the Kshudrakas and Malavas, make stubborn resistance, but
all are subdued. Other princes submit. The Agalassians are
severely defeated.
325 Alexander sails up the Asikni to the Indus. The tribes
of the Punjab and Indus are easily reduced.
The principalities on the Lower Indus are seized without
difficulty. Alexander fortifies the conquered territory and
establishes satrapies. In August he returns to Persia with
eighty thousand men. In September, Nearchus sails for Persia
with the fleet. After Alexander’s departure =Philippus=, the
satrap of the Punjab, is murdered by mutinous mercenaries.
=Eudemus= and Mophis of Takshasila are made temporary
satraps.
323 June 11, death of Alexander.
321 Antipater appoints =Peithon= satrap of Upper India, and
=Porus= of the Lower Indus. Murder of Porus by Eudemus.
320 This crime instigates =Chandra Gupta= (Sandrocottus), a
man of humble origin, probably a native of the Punjab, to
arouse his countrymen against the Greeks. They flock to his
standard.
317 Chandra Gupta expels the satraps from the land of the
Indus. He proceeds against the kingdom of Magadha.
315 Conquest of Magadha by Chandra Gupta. Dhanananda
probably slain.
312 He ascends the throne of Magadha. Beginning of the
Maurya dynasty.
305 Seleucus attempts to re-establish Greek supremacy in
the Punjab and Indus valley. He encounters army of Chandra
Gupta, is forced to make an unfavourable treaty and alliance
with him.
300 Changes have been introduced into the Brahmanic system
through the influence of Buddhism. Vishnu (the preserver)
and Siva (the destroyer) form a trilogy with Brahma (the
creator). There is a liberation from regeneration.
291 Death of Chandra Gupta. His son =Vindusara= succeeds.
He keeps up the kingdom. Megasthenes is the ambassador of
Seleucus at the court of Magadha.
263 =Asoka= “the Buddhist Constantine,” son of Vindusara,
succeeds to the throne of Magadha.
256-254 Treaty with Antiochus Theos. From being a cruel man
Asoka is converted to Buddhism. Builds monasteries and many
splendid edifices for the new faith. Associates Buddhist
priests with him in the government. Professed by the king
and his family, Buddhism now spreads rapidly throughout
India.
Ceylon under =King Devanampriya-Tishya= (245-205) is also
converted.
The kingdom of Magadha is extended over Surashtra (Guzerat),
Orissa, Kalinga, and in the south beyond the Godavari.
The monumental history of India begins.
226 =Subhagasena= succeeds his father, Asoka. In his reign
or that of his father the columns of Bharhut, Sanchi, and
Buddha Gaya were erected.
180 Eucratides, king of Bactria, conquers the Indus as far
as Patala.
GRÆCO-BACTRIAN DOMINION IN THE INDUS REGION
178 Fall of the dynasty of Maurya.
The Sungas ascend the throne.
Two kings, =Puspamitra= and =Agnimitra=, reign thirty years.
148 The Gupta dynasty succeeds.
125 The Tatar tribe of Su drives the Greeks from Bactria,
and the Græco-Bactrian settlements in the Punjab are
overthrown by Tue-Chi.
The extent of the Scythian invasion has been variously
estimated. Some scholars believe that they virtually
supplanted the previous population of India, and there seems
little doubt that by far the most numerous section of the
Punjab population is of Scythian origin. At all events the
Scythians play an important part in the subsequent history
of northern India, and are the means of Buddhism getting
into central and eastern Asia.
57 Beginning of the era founded in honour of King
Vikramaditya. This name has been borne by several kings in
Indian history--all famous for their struggles against the
Scythians, from which much confusion has arisen.
A.D. 2-78 A.D. By this time the Scythians have established an
empire over which the Kanishka family rules.
78 =Salivahana=, a king of southern India, is supposed
to have checked the advance of the Scythians towards the
south. After this, the fortunes of the invaders undergo many
reverses. From now until the time of the Mohammedan conquest
our knowledge of Indian history is most imperfect. But among
the opponents of the Scythians there are:
60-235 The Sah (or Xatrapa) kings living northwest of Bombay.
319-470 The Gupta kings of Oudh and the northwest provinces.
480-722 The Valabhi kings in Cutch, the northwest districts
of Bombay and Malwa.
510-560 Within the period took place the great battle
of Korur in which King Vikramaditya of Ujjain in Malwa
annihilated the Scythian army.
636 First appearance of the Mohammedans in India.
Osman sends a naval expedition to the Bombay coast.
712 Kasim invades Sind and establishes himself in the Indus
valley.
722 The invaders overthrow the Valabhi dynasty.
828 The Hindus expel the Mohammedans and regain possession
of Sind.
977-1176 Era of Mohammedan invasion.
A portion of the Punjab annexed to the Saracen empire.
1199 Mohammedan conquest of Behar.
1203 Mohammedan conquest of Lower Bengal.
1295-1315 Conquest of southern India.
1398 Tatar invasion of Timur (Tamerlane).
1482 Accession of =Babar=. (The Mogul dynasty.)
1556 Accession of =Akbar the Great=. The Mohammedan empire
of India established.
FOOTNOTES
[16] The word is spelled with various modifications of the second
letter, which is usually pronounced like _s_ in sure.
[17] Isaac Taylor: _The History of the Alphabet_.
CHAPTER I. LAND AND PEOPLE
India like China and Egypt is reputed to be a land of evasive
mysteries. Like them it had a self-contained civilisation with
apparently no desire to reach out from it to the greater world. To be
sure, India was not shut off from outside contact as fully as China,
for the Phœnicians were early drawn by its fabled treasures to visit it
in a commercial capacity, and tradition relates that, at least once,
Assyrian forces had invaded its bounds on a less peaceful mission. But,
nevertheless, the share of the Indians themselves in such intercourse
was largely passive. They received foreign traders, unlike the early
Egyptians; and they repelled foreign invaders; but they themselves
seemed just as little inclined as before to spread beyond national
bounds. Even the Egyptians had their periods of foreign conquests, when
they penetrated Asia, at least as far as the Tigris, but if the Hindus
ever yielded to a like impulse there is no record of it preserved to
us. Yet their influence upon the nations that traded with them must
have been considerable and they thus have a larger share in the scheme
of ancient history than China. Even so, however, their place is a minor
one compared with that of Egypt and Babylonia. Even were it greater,
the records from which to reconstruct its history are meagre and we
shall be obliged to content ourselves with a sketch that is at best but
fragmentary.
There is another point of view from which the Hindus have an interest
exceeding that of even the most important of ancient nations that
we have hitherto studied. For with them we come for the first time
in contact with the great Aryan race. Hitherto we have traced the
history of the Hamitic, Semitic, and Turanian races, but now with the
Aryan race we enter upon what may be considered the direct channel of
European history, for practically all subsequent history has to do with
this race.
Turning then to the Hindus, the easternmost branch of the great
Indo-Germanic or Aryan race, we find, as was to be expected, the
same utter obscurity as to origin that we have seen encompassing all
questions of racial beginnings elsewhere. One perhaps is justified,
however, in feeling that in the case of the Hindus secure traditions
carry us one stage farther back than is the case, for example, with
such races as the Egyptians and Chinese. For it is accepted as a clear
historic fact that the Aryan race, who came to be at a very early
day,--at least 1000 B.C.,--the absolutely dominant force practically
throughout the vast territory of India, had invaded this territory from
the northwest; had come, in short, from that Central-Asiatic centre
of distribution which we have just spoken of as the long accepted
traditional cradle of the Aryan races. Whether at a still earlier
period this migration had its source in more distant lands, including
ultimately the Atlantic borders of Europe, is altogether problematical,
but that the immediate source of invasion was Central Asia is not to be
doubted.
The beginning of this invasion in which the Central-Asiatic Aryan
people descended upon the northwestern regions of the land, which
we now term India, date from a vaguely determined period, which can
hardly be more recent than 2000 years B.C. From this beginning the
invaders spread farther and farther beyond the Ganges, occupying the
great fertile plains of Central India, and ultimately the plateau of
the Deccan, and crowding the original inhabitants into out-of-the-way
corners of the land till they seemed almost exterminated. This
extermination of the original or non-Aryan population of India,
however, was only relative, as even now there are many millions of
their descendants still living in India; but the invaders became so
utterly dominant and so enormously preponderant in numbers that the
original inhabitants may practically be disregarded in treating of
Indian history.
The exact details of the early history of the Aryans in India are quite
unknown. So far as the history of this period can be reconstructed
at all, materials for it are furnished, as in the case of the early
history of almost all other nations, solely by traditions, which came
ultimately, and that at a very early day, to be woven into a system of
theology. Here, as elsewhere, those tales and myths of godlike heroes
and hero-gods which embalmed the spirit of many aspiring generations,
came ultimately, when gathered into books, to be accepted as a divine
revelation made to a single early prophet. Here, as among several
other nations, there was also built up a great system of national epic
poetry. Parts of this are preserved to us under the titles of the
_Mahabharata_ and the _Ramayana_, and are in themselves, as is always
the case with the great national epics, important sources of history if
properly interpreted.
The great religious books bore the name of Vedas, and these at a
relatively late stage of national evolution,--yet, perhaps as early as
800 or 900 B.C.,--were gathered into a document, which came to be known
as Manu’s Code, Manu being a name which signified ethnologically the
first man, and the code being of course the supposed divine revelation
delivered to that first man. This code in its various departments is
the chief source on which historians must draw in interpreting the
early history of India. At the time when this code was written, society
in India had already reached a relatively high grade of civilisation;
in particular, the priests had fixed their firm hold upon the national
life, and that strange system of castes, which is so typical a feature
in Indian life, had become firmly established.
Some centuries later, the power of the Brahmans was for a time
threatened through the advent of a new prophet and philosophical
teacher in the person of the prince Buddha. This reformer lived about
the 6th century B.C. He was of royal blood, but he early threw aside
the prerogatives of his birth and became a peripatetic philosopher.
His aim was essentially the same as that which actuated another Aryan,
Socrates by name, in the distant land of Greece, at a slightly later
period. He strove to inculcate lessons of right living, of practical
morality. With religion, as such, he professed to have little concern,
yet soon after his death his teachings served as the foundations
for a new religious system, which spread rapidly under stimulus of
persecution and waged a long, fierce warfare with the established
creeds of Brahmanism.
As regards India itself, this religious rebellion did not prove a
revolution, for the established religion of Brahmanism remained in
firm possession of the field, expelling the would-be usurper. But the
doctrines of Buddha thus renounced in the land of their origin, spread
rapidly to the east, into Tibet and China, and are to-day accepted as
the one true faith by some scores of millions of people--an appreciable
proportion of the total population of the globe: perhaps as large a
number as subscribe to the tenets of any other single form of religious
belief.
As to the political history of India, in a narrower sense,
comparatively little need be said, so closely is this history bound
up with the growth and struggles of religious doctrines. The land was
early divided into lesser principalities ruled by petty sovereigns,
who themselves were more or less dominated by the priesthood. There
were, of course, times when one or another of these principalities
was aggrandised through the efforts of an unusual sovereign, and, as
we shall see, there were periods and places where memorials of the
power of princes and of priests were left in the form of extraordinary
temples and grottos of unique design and execution. But beyond the
fact of the gradual sweep of the Aryan civilisation from the northwest
toward the south and east, until it gradually encompassed the entire
Indian peninsula, and the further fact of the growth of Brahmanism,
with all that it implied, until it dominated the entire race, there is
no single main current in the evolution of the people of ancient India,
which the present-day historian can trace in any such clean-cut way,
as, for example, he can trace the succession of dominant dynasties in
Egypt, or in Assyrio-Babylonia.[a]
THE LAND
On the southern border of that central highland which, like “a high
firm rocky islet in the storm-tossed sea,” forms the centre of the
Asiatic continent, rise the Himalayas, the highest mountain-range on
earth, in parallel chains broken by wild abysses. Boundless fields of
snow and ice which even the power of the tropical sun cannot affect
and white mountain tops of shimmering brilliance surround the Himavat,
“the King of rocks,” as it is termed in the Indian epic, where “nothing
blooms, not a spear of grass puts forth its green, and no bird soars
through the air, where not a living thing stirs save the wind alone.”
The dead silence of ice-bound nature reigns everywhere, no plant, no
moss springs from the steep snow-covered slopes. Vegetation commences
only at the third ridge of mountains, and, making its first appearance
in oaks, birches, and pines and in a scanty cultivation of corn, soon
shows its full power in the mighty tree-growth of the lower forest
region, which then passes into a highland on the west, and on the east
into a richly watered plain, where in the tree-high jungle grass of
the impenetrable primeval forest, tigers, elephants, and huge snakes
abound, and in the stagnant waters and swamps the plants rot and “the
air is filled with foul pestilence.” “This mountainous wall,” says
Duncker, “which extends about 1750 miles from west to east, determines
the nature and life of the country that stretches out southward from it
as the peninsula of Italy does from the European Alps,” and gives it
the character of a “continent isolated geographically, climatically,
and historically.”
The Himalaya Mountains protect highland and plains from the rough north
winds which blow cold and devastating over the highland of central
Asia; but they also check the rain clouds, the collected moisture of
the ocean which the monsoons drive hither from the southern sea. So
these clouds have to pour forth their store of water on the plains
at the foot of the Himalayas, “turning the sun’s heat into coolness
and the parched vegetation into a luxuriant green.” Hence arises that
variety of climate and vegetation which has ever caused India to
appear the most blessed part of the earth, the fruit-garden of the
world.
The shape of India can be compared to two triangles, which, coinciding
at their base, extend their two apexes to opposite points of the
compass, northward and southward. The northern triangle, whose sides
are intersected by lofty chains of mountains, while broad lowlands and
plains stretch over the middle, is Hindustan proper. Across it the
mightiest rivers in the country, the Indus in the west, the Brahmaputra
in the east, and the Ganges in the middle, after bursting forth from
the icefields of the Himalayas, follow their tortuous courses to the
Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal.
The southern triangle, on the other hand, the sides of which consist of
flat coast and the middle of broad plateaus and chains of mountains,
is formed by the Deccan, the middle one of the three great peninsulas
which extend from the mainland of Asia toward the south.
Hindustan is composed of the two river valleys of the Indus and Ganges,
which are quite distinct in nature and history. Both rivers have their
source in the northern mountains, in the vicinity of the sacred lakes,
where Kailasa, the mountain of the gods, rises to an unmeasured height,
in the same district where the three other great streams of India, the
Sutlej, the Brahmaputra, and the Jumna, have their rise.
The Indus at first turns westward, then, not far from the famous vale
of Kashmir, it takes a southerly direction, and increased by the
Jhelum, Sutlej, and three other tributaries, it flows on through the
Punjab (“Land of the Five Rivers”) to the Indian Ocean.
The Ganges, on the contrary, which with its tributary the Jumna takes
a southerly course, soon reaches the Indian plains, but, checked in
its course by the rugged Vindhya Mountains, it turns to the east,
and increased by many tributaries from north and south, it pours
its fertilising waters over its low banks, producing that luxuriant
vegetation which manifests itself both in the mighty tree-growth with
its shady boughs and tops, and in the richness of the splendid products
and the tropical flora.
With this fertility, however, is combined an enervating sultry
atmosphere and a foul pestilential air, arising from the heat and
moisture of the climate, which has most disastrous effects in the
alluvial district of Bengal, where the waters of the Brahmaputra in
their southerly course approach the wide stream of the Ganges.
“The district above the Delta,” says Lassen, “where the still undivided
Ganges is so wide that one can scarcely see from bank to bank, is
a most rich and fertile country, but of an enervating and sultry
climate. In the Delta itself an even more luxuriant power of production
manifests itself. The earth brings forth such mighty, impenetrable
thickets of trees and climbing plants that man, unable to contend with
it, is obliged to give it over to the wild beasts for a dwelling, to
the tiger for sovereignty.”
The Indus first follows, in a westerly direction, the great rock-gorge
which runs with a depth of ten thousand feet between the parallel
mountain chains of the Karakoram (Muz-Tagh) and the Himalayas. After
breaking through the Hindu Kush mountains in a narrow bed, it flows
in a southerly direction from the point where, not far from the city
of Attock, at the west of the flowery Vale of Kashmir, its waters are
increased by the river Kabul.
The Vale of Kashmir, which from snowfield to snowfield has a width
of only ten to twelve miles, once enjoyed a great fame as the seat
of the original paradise of the human race. And although more exact
investigations have stripped off much of its poetic charm, it may
nevertheless, on account of the fertility of its soil, its glorious
climate, and the beauty of its mountain scenery be regarded as one
of the most blessed spots upon earth. It forms an isolated world by
itself, is favourably situated for trade with the north and the west,
and was in earliest times one of the principal seats of Indian culture.
In the mountains of Kashmir rises the Jhelum (Hydaspes) [the ancient
Vitasta], one of those famous four rivers which together with the Indus
have given the country the name of Punjab (or Land of the Five Rivers).
The most easterly river is the Sutlej, called in its lower course
Garra, and by the Greeks, Hyphasis.
After the Indus has received these rivers, its valley is bounded on
the west by the mountain chains of Persia, and on the east by a wide
waterless steppe, which extends from the foothills of the Himalayas to
the sea, and which gives only sparse nourishment to the buffalo herds,
asses and camels. Near the mouth of the river, inundations of the
sea, the dense growth of rushes and reeds and the want of fresh water
prevent better cultivation and a denser population.
Westward of the upper Indus lies the rich beautiful mountain land of
Afghanistan, intersected by branches of the Hindu Kush Mountains, and
since remote antiquity the great caravan route--“a long gateway between
Iran and India, through which the products of the land as well as those
of the spirit passed for exchange.” In the south of Afghanistan the
western boundary of India is formed by some chains of mountains that
tower above the low narrow banks of the Indus; first by the Sulaiman
chain, with the “Throne of Solomon,” 11,317 feet high, many narrow
passes and bare heights, and then by the Brahui Mountains with a
southern branch stretching to the sea, and harbouring in its roadless,
secluded valleys a black race of strange form and language. In the
west these mountains traverse the plateau of Kelat, whose narrow rocky
gorges afford the sole pass to the traveller who desires to go from
the central Indus valley to Persia. The eastern side of the mountains
as far as the bank of the Indus, Sewestan and Kakha Gardara, with its
splendid date palms, is still reckoned as Indian territory.
The southern triangle, the Deccan, a tableland of a tropical character,
is quite different from Hindustan, which with the exception of the
mountainous district in the south of the Himalayas and in the north of
Vindhyas, mainly embraces the plains in the two river valleys of the
Indus and the Ganges.
From the girdle of the Vindhya Mountains which lie like a great bulwark
in front of the Deccan, the bold rugged chain of the Aravalli, rich in
myths, branches off to the northwest, while the Ghats stretch along the
western coast, leaving only a narrow strip of land with small, westerly
flowing streams. The tableland slopes gradually to the east until it
forms a rich, well-watered, sea-washed valley near the Bay of Bengal,
which receives most of the rivers, like the Mahanadi, the Godavari,
the Krishna [Kistna], the Kaveri, etc. Only two of the rivers of the
Vindhya, the Narbada and the Tapti, flow westward.
As Lassen says: “The Deccan can be described as a strip of coast in
the west, another in the east and in the middle among the Ghats, a
mountainous land cut up by streams into several small districts.” The
highland in the centre, intersected by many river valleys and wild
defiles, “has on the whole no very great elevation, and still it is
entirely within the cooler mountain district and removed from the
sultry heat of the lowlands; it is only quite in the south that it is
high enough for the formation of snow.”
The peninsula, therefore, presents an extremely varied natural aspect,
a “grand alternation of waste shifting sands and rich alluvial
deposits, of bare mountain-sides and densely wooded swampy lowlands,
of narrow defiles and open river beds; and yet it lacks the many
indentations of the sea with their navigable rivers which have made
western Europe such a populous land.”
The Vindhya Mountains, although only of moderate height, formed a wide
barrier between Hindustan and the Deccan, and with their impassable
ruggedness, luxuriant forests, and wild beasts afforded the aborigines
a safe refuge from the northern conquerors. And thus, even in the
splendid period of Brahmanism, unconquered races maintained themselves
in independence in these impenetrable defiles and wild forests of the
central country, and did not give up their language, their savage
nature, and their rude religious cult with its human sacrifices, for
the orderly life, the settled state, and the mild Brahmanic religion of
the Aryan Hindu.
The alternation of highland and valley, the pleasant mixture of
mountain air and tropical heat, the invigorating influence of the
moisture, which the nearness of the sea, the countless streams, and the
regularly recurring rains of the monsoon season spread over the whole
land, produced that richness of vegetation, that fertility of soil,
and that fulness and variety of every kind of natural product which
even in antiquity caused India to be praised as a land of happiness and
blessing, made it the aim of the world’s commerce, but at the same time
aroused the cupidity of the conqueror.
Whilst the snow valleys and mountain districts of the Himalayas with
their temperate climate, produce plants and cereals, fruit and forest
trees corresponding to southern European species, in the plains of the
Jumna and the Ganges the vegetation of the tropical climate grows along
with that of the temperate zones. By the side of corn, legumes, and
fruit in most luxuriant abundance there is here rice and cotton, sugar
and indigo, and a wonderful southern flora of a marvellous richness of
colour; and in the districts of the Deccan, where, as on the coast of
Malabar, the monsoons and the mountain streams bring an abundance of
moisture, the noble products of India ripen to a threefold harvest.
Here the most varied tropical plants thrive in rare abundance, here
with industry three rice harvests can be obtained, here grow the
sugar-cane and the pepper plant, the banana and the mango; here rise
stately forests of the Indian oak, called teak, of the precious
sandal-wood, of palm and fig trees with their cool shady avenues; this
is the home of the betel-nut tree and the nutmeg tree; here the land
is redolent of spices and sweet odours; here blooms the vari-coloured
water lily, the sacred lotus plant in whose seed the form of the future
plant is visible, wherefore it was to the Indian a symbol of the
evolution of the world from its original germ.
The streams carry gold sand, in the mountains are diamond mines, and
precious stones and crystals of the most beautiful brilliancy, the
seas furnish pearls for the adornment of temples and for jewelry. A
numerous fauna, particularly the cow, the horse and the elephant,
has the most varied relations with man, and hence also occupies an
important place in the religious conceptions of the Hindu; the goat
of the Himalayas supplies the fine wool for the cashmere shawls, the
musk deer gives perfume, the silkworm spins the noble thread for the
most costly fabric; and the great dogs of some of the western states
were trained by the Indians and Persians for the chase and for war. The
bright-feathered birds (parrots), which even learn the language of man,
the peacocks with their broad tails of dark blue and emerald, and the
countless family of monkeys excited the admiration of Greek antiquity
from Herodotus and Ctesias down to the authors of the Alexandrian
period [Megasthenes]. India was always the land of wonders, where
fancy established her kingdom, where legend and poetry loved to
tarry.[b]
This then is the theatre of India’s history. What of the strange people
who have dwelt there so little changed by time? The ethnology of the
Indians has been debated fiercely and long.
THE EARLY PEOPLES OF INDIA
The population of India amounts to about a fourth part of that of
the globe and consists of various races. In the Vindhyas the Munda
tribes are still to be found to a great extent in their original
condition and without the knowledge of the use of metal. They seem to
be the original inhabitants, related to the other coloured peoples of
southern Asia, and appear to have been driven from the plains into the
mountains by nations who immigrated at a later period. Their religion
is fetish-worship. Their clothing is limited to what is absolutely
indispensable.
To them belong the Kols who inhabit the highlands of Chota Nagpur in
southern Behar, northwest of Calcutta: they are divided into various
sections, the Santals, the Kols of Singbum or Larka Kols, the Kols of
Bhumij, and the Munda Kols south of Ranchi in the Kolhan, and others;
the Khamti, a kindred people, live on the borders of further India: the
Ramusi, who live between Poona and Kolapur and the Warali, southeast
of Damaun (between Bombay and Surat), speak the Sanskrit tongue of the
Mahrattas; the Bhils dwell in the woods on the Tapti and Nerbudda and
in Guzerat, but have also adopted civilisation together with the Aryan
language. The Mairs in the Aravalli hills southwest of Ajmir and the
Mina in the neighbourhood of the Jumna are also Munda tribes.
The Deccan is inhabited mainly by the Dravidians, whose languages are
entirely different from the Munda and Sanskrit tongues. Like the Munda
they have dark skins, but with the exception of a few mountain peoples
they are civilised and they possess voluminous writings. They include
the Tamil in the southernmost part of the Deccan, extending from
Palikat (north of Madras) to Cape Comorin and east of a line drawn to
the same cape from Bangalore through Coimbatore. The Telinga or Telugu
(Sanskrit, Andhra) inhabit the country between Palikat and Orissa, and
are bordered on the northwest by the Mahratta country. Inscriptions
tell us of Andhra kings of the first century B.C. The Telugu names of
many towns on the east coast show that this people were once extended
over an area which reached much further north and even to Bengal. Like
the Tamil they have both a popular and a literary language. The Tulu
in the neighbourhood of Mangalore, formerly also reached to the coast,
where the Malabar are now to be found; the latter received Christianity
from Persia at an early period and wrote their language in Syrian
characters called Karshunish.
North of them are the Kanarese, inhabiting the coast and the inland
districts towards Mysore, where they join uncivilised mountain peoples,
the Kota, Badaga, and Koduga (Coorg). The Toda in the Nilgiris north
of Coimbatore, represent the unmixed type of the race; they are taller
than the other peoples and practise polyandry. Their religion consists
in the fear of spirits, whose malignity is opposed by magic; the grand
function of the village priest is the milking of the cows. The Uraon
Kols and the Rajmahal Kols of the Lower Ganges as far as Gondwana are
also of Dravidian origin. They are the pariahs of the social system;
the Gonds speak Hindi, a Sanskrit language. They worship two gods,
from whom proceed the good and evil in creation.
Other Dravidian peoples are the Ku or Kandhs in the mountains of
Orissa, and finally, the Brahuis in the mountains of Baluchistan, south
of Kelat in eastern Iran--the Ethiopians of the Greeks. Their presence
in this remote territory is a token of the wide extension of the race
in former times, and they perhaps migrated from the highlands of Asia.
Yet another nationality is represented by the original inhabitants
of Ceylon (called in Sanskrit Sinhaladvipa, or the Island of the
Sinhalas), the Vaddas, _i.e._ hunters, east of the Mahawalliganga who
are still preserved from the admixture of foreign blood; ethnologically
they show a resemblance to the ancient Dravidian peoples, but their
language, the Elu, is quite peculiar to themselves.
It is supposed that about the year 2000 the immigration of Aryan
(Indo-European) tribes started from the northwest. At some undefined
period these Aryans formed one people with the Iranians, and their
language, Sanskrit, is closely related to the Iranian. About 1500 years
before Christ they had spread over the territory of the Indus, but
it was not till five hundred years later that they began to conquer
the plain of the Ganges, and the severe struggles which they had to
sustain against the population are reflected in the epic as well as in
countless legends; for in virtue of a peculiar love of the fantastic
and thanks to the diligence of Brahman priests, the Aryan Indians have
enveloped their ancient history in a cloud of myths and literally
revelled in the construction of chronological systems covering
immeasurable periods of time.
At the time of the Ophir voyage, when Solomon sent to India for ivory,
apes, and peacocks, there were as yet no Aryans in southern India, for
the name for apes, in Hebrew “qof,” and in Sanskrit “kapi,” cannot
be an Aryan word; it first comes to hand in the latest book of the
Rig-Veda, but also appears in the form “qaf” as early as the IVth
Dynasty in Egypt, and the name for peacocks, “tuki,” has been borrowed
from the Malabar “togei.” From an ethnological point of view the Aryans
of India are not a pure race, as they appear to have been when they
dwelt in the valley of the Indus; for in the Veda a contrast is often
drawn between a clear complexion and the dark skin of the indigenous
peoples. They must on the contrary have mixed with natives at some
period when a peculiar civilisation and, in consequence, an increasing
separation of the different classes was in course of development;
and not only has the physical type greatly altered its original
Indo-European character, but the whole civilisation of the Indians
has received the stamp of southern and eastern Asia, which makes them
appear to us even stranger than the Asiatic Semites or the Egyptians.
This fact is often overlooked, because the use of the Aryan speech
continually reminds us of the close relationship between the Indian
Aryans and the Persians and Europeans. And it is not merely that the
Aryans have assumed the racial marks of the Dravidian, but on the other
hand the pure type of the indigenous population has only been preserved
in the uncivilised mountain peoples. In later centuries the course of
history introduced still further elements, as the Indo-Scythians in
the northwest, the Persians and Arabians, and, finally, the Europeans,
including those Mohammedans who have had so much influence on religious
development.
In the territory in which the Aryan population preponderated, the
Sanskrit language superseded the native one. The most widely diffused
language of India is the Hindi, whose sphere is bordered in the west
by the languages of the Punjab and of Sind with that of Cutch, in the
south by the Guzerati language, the Mahratta, and the Telinga, and in
the east by the tongues of Orissa and Bengal, to which the Asami is
added. With the exception of Telinga, these are all Aryan languages.
In the north, Hindi reaches as far as the Terai, a vast prairie
and forest inhabited by elephants, rhinoceros, tigers and other
wild beasts, beyond which, extended over the southern slope of the
Himalayas, dwells a whole series of peoples. In the high mountains and
beyond them these peoples adjoin the Tibetans; the Rong or Lepcha in
Sikkim, whose language, a Tibetan dialect, became known a few years
ago; the Kiratis and Limbus of eastern Nepal; the Murmis and Newars in
Nepal; the Kumaunis, and others.
The Mohammedan Indians have enriched Hindi with Arabic and Persian
words and make use of the Arabic writing. This language which differs
greatly from Hindi in grammar and syntax, is called Hindustani and
is the chief speech current in India. Within the Hindi, Kellogg
distinguishes eleven idioms, and these are again subdivided into
dialects. Besides the Sanskrit languages already mentioned which
border on Hindi, there are also some to be found in the Himalayas,
especially in Kashmir and in Dardistan, a country bordered on the
north by Muztagh (Karakoram), on the west by the mountain chain which
divides it from the country of Chitral in the north, on the east by a
similar range between the Indus and Krishnaganga, and on the northeast
by the territories of Rongdo and Baltistan. According to Ujfalvy the
inhabitants of the latter are also Aryans who have adopted the Tibetan
language. Dardistan is inhabited by various races, who only immigrated
in the Middle Ages and at a still later period, and even now are still
in an unsettled condition. It was not explored till recent times by
Schlagintweit, Leitner, Hayward and Biddulph. Whilst in ancient times
the Darada (Dardæ) were spread over the valley of the Indus as far as
the gold-fields of Thok Jalung, the name of Dard was found by Biddulph
only opposite the entrance to the Kandia valley, where the Indus turns
its course southward.
Another widespread people are the Shins, whose special seat is Gilgit
and their language a Sanskrit tongue, closely related to those of the
Punjab and Kashmir and to Hindustani. These people found their way
from Shinkari between the Indus and Krishnaganga, and form the main
population of the Indus valley from Ghor to Ghorband: their language
has several dialects and in Baltistan they call themselves Rom, as the
gypsies do.
Another daughter-language of Sanskrit is spoken by the tribes in the
southwest of Dardistan, who claim to have come from Swat. This language
has also different dialects as the Gowro, the Narisati and the language
of the Siah-posh in Wamastan. On the other hand the people in Hunza,
Nagar and Yassin speak Burishki, which Biddulph regards as the language
of the Yuechi. The Yidghah, a Persian idiom, is also found in Dardistan.
The oldest monuments of Indo-Aryan literature, namely the Veda hymns,
contain many allusions to historical conditions, which the poet,
however, assumed to be well known, or they may have been related in
prose passages inserted between the verses which are all that now
remain. They mention five peoples, the Turwasa, Jadu, Anu, Druhju
and the Puru, who finally won the upper hand after the battle of the
ten kings and are called Kuru in the epic. Besides this they mention
a series of kings and priests who can, however, be assigned to no
definite time or place.
The social conditions are primitive, and whilst the original
inhabitants had advanced so far in civilisation that they possessed
fortified towns and great wealth in herds, furniture, metal
ornaments and good weapons, the Aryans were still in the condition of
cattle-breeders, to whom the possessions of the enemy were a welcome
spoil. Even in the epic, the Danawa Maja, a Daitja, or enemy of the
(Aryan) gods, and architect of the Asuras, builds a palace for the
sons of Pandu; for it was from the natives that the Aryans learnt the
art of building in stone, they themselves, like other Indo-Europeans,
understanding only how to build in wood and piles, or they dwelt in
caves.
The Aryan prayers for the prosperity of their own cows, for a rich
produce of butter, grass and crops, were directed to divine beings in
whom natural phenomena and the elements are personified, but which also
embody moral conceptions. But the songs of the Rig-Veda date from such
various periods that, side by side with these ideas of a simple age, we
also discern a detailed picture of sacrificial rites and an advanced
culture, and even the appearance of doubt of the religious verities;
it is quite comprehensible that new poems might at any time come into
existence, or new families of singers (Rishis) appear on the scene
with their store of hymns for sacrificial purposes, until a general
collection of songs had been drawn up and adapted to a form of worship
regulated in perpetuity by agreement between all the families of Rishis
whom their class interests made anxious to be reconciled with one
another.
The four Vedas (or collections of ceremonial songs), were supplemented
by an enormous mass of literature proceeding from various sections, or
schools. This includes, first the Brahmana, works serving to guide the
priests in the procedure relating to sacrifices, then those explaining
and justifying the application of the verses to each separate part of
the service on mythological or symbolic grounds. Here the view taken
attains the region of philosophical speculation, so that in these
Upanishads, some one hundred and fifty in number, lie the beginnings
of a philosophy of religion, and the later works of this class contain
a regular philosophical system. The inexhaustible knowledge laid up in
these numerous works was finally epitomised in the shortest conceivable
form in the so-called Sutra (manuals), which, however, are frequently
written only in a language of technical symbols so that they require an
explanation from the teacher or a commentary. They are intended to be
learnt by heart.
The Vedas cannot have been committed to the Indian writing at a very
early period, since we know of none older than the inscriptions of
Asoka, which date from the middle of the third century B.C.; one of
the writings which here appear, and which runs from left to right,
is the Watteluta alphabet, derived from those Arabic alphabets to be
seen in the inscriptions found in Harra or Safa in eastern Hauran and
deciphered by Halévy in 1877. This character belongs to the Alexandrian
period. In the northwest of India a second alphabet is to be found on
the Asoka inscriptions and on coins. It runs from right to left and is
considered to be the same which was brought here in the Persian epoch
and was derived from the Aramaic used in the Persian empire; however,
it too may have been introduced later, for it strongly resembles the
alphabet of the Blacas papyrus (assigned to the age of the Ptolemies,
or, with more probability, to that of the later Persians), and other
papyruses of the Alexandrian epoch. It is not conceivable that Asoka
and those who issued the coins would have made use of these alphabets
if an older and more perfect one had existed in India and been used for
the Vedas; but in order to commit the Vedas to writing and to fix their
form in all the details of phonetics and accentuation, a character was
required whose perfection is only attained by the cultured Devanagari
writing, which appears to have been first used in Malwa, the kingdom
of Vikramaditya: it is still less conceivable that, for instance, the
Pratisakhya sutras of the four Vedas should have had before them a
work in a more imperfect writing, since these compendiums of phonology
descend to the most extreme subtleties and in doing so presuppose the
precise text which we now possess and which must consequently have
received a fixed form at least at the epoch of these grammatical works.
If we fix the conquest of the territory of the Ganges in the period at
the beginning of the first millennium B.C., we do so on no historical
evidence but only on the grounds of the probability that that conquest
extended over hundreds of years and that in the first centuries before
Christ it was an accomplished fact. The _Mahabharata_, that vast epic
compared with which Homer seems a mere pocket-book, only received its
present form some centuries after Christ, and the lists we have of the
kings of those peoples who figure in the poem, especially those of the
country of Magadha (Behar), are unreliable and vary in the different
copies in which they are found.
The spread of the Aryans along the coast of the Deccan and as far as
Ceylon, of which the _Ramayana_ gives a fabulous account, is also
not chronologically definable, for this poem in twenty-four thousand
distiches is also a very late product, and that extension lay far
behind it, for in the ancient geographers we already find Aryan names
affixed to towns in southern India.
The first piece of information concerning Indian history whose date
is certain is that of Darius’ conquest of the territory of the Indus,
which formed a Persian satrapy. Since then the western countries of
India have been under foreign rulers, first under the Bactrian and
Indo-Scythian kings, later on under the Sassanids, as is shown both by
Indian coins of contemporary kings with a Sassanian stamp and legends
in Pahlavi and Sanskrit and by historical notices concerning the
relations of the kings of Marwar to Peroz and Anoscharwan, so that the
conquest of Mahmoud of Ghazni and later rulers only renewed the ancient
claims of Iran upon Indian possessions.[c]
[Illustration: RUINS OF OLD INDIAN TEMPLE AT BOMBAY]
CHAPTER II. INDIAN HISTORY--LEGEND AND REALITY
Protected by the highest mountains of the world and traversed
by lovely fertile hills, India is bounded on one side by the
Pacific Ocean and on the other by the Himalayas, watered by a
thousand streams, and great rivers, upon the banks of which
the sun ripens all kinds of delicious fruits which grow of
themselves.
A large population flourishes on the perpetually green, immense
plains sloping down to the sea; the canals are frequented with
navigators who from oldest times have received in exchange for
money the wonderful natural products of the country.