The Hindus have never been chronologists or historians, and their
great Sanskrit literature tells practically nothing about the rise of
Buddhism, the invasion of Alexander, or the spread of civilization in
Indo-China. All before the Islamic conquest in the tenth century A. D.
is in a mist of Puranic mythology. Here, then, more than in other
countries, archæology has restored the history, and done so entirely
within the nineteenth century.
The existence of Sanskrit literature was revealed to the West by Sir
William Jones at the end of the last century, and this gave scope to
Oriental scholars, while antiquities only interested the collector. But
serious exploration was led by Prinsep, whose decipherment of the Asoka
inscriptions in 1837, which ranks with the achievements of Champollion
and Rawlinson, gave the key to a mass of inscriptions.
His assistant, Cunningham, excavated many sites and collected coins,
being head of the Archæological Survey from 1861 to 1885. Fergusson
was the historian of Indian architecture; Burgess has published the
cave-temples in west and south India; Sewell in Madras and Führer in
the northwest have excavated and explored, and a few native pundits
have been educated to such research. The government, in financial
difficulty, has withdrawn from the work, but the congress of
Orientalists in 1897 resolved to establish an Indian exploration fund.
Inscriptions abound in India, on copper plate, stone pillars, and
native rock. Those in Sanskrit, or modern vernaculars, are records of
land grants or local dynasties. The oldest—in two different alphabets
(of Semitic origin)—are the famous edicts of Asoka (third century
B. C.), who has been called The Buddhist Constantine. He placed these
monuments of his power and religion around his frontiers of northern
India; but their meaning was forgotten until Prinsep’s decipherment.
The Hindus seem to have a coinage of stamped silver plate before
Alexander; but regular coinage begins in the Bactrian kingdoms (200
B. C.–200 A. D.), with Greek and native inscriptions. Since then the
coinage is continuous, and invaluable for history. No stone building
or sculpture is older than Alexander (327 B. C.), or certainly earlier
than Asoka (264–233 B. C.). Greek influence is plain in the Punjab,
but native style is seen in the cave-temples. The richest results have
been from the mounds, some of which are ruins of forts or palaces,
but the more important are the _stupas_, lofty domes erected two to
one thousand years ago to enshrine Buddhist relics. These domes are
surrounded with sculptured reliefs of scenes in the life of Buddha,
and are often dated by inscriptions. From one lately opened the Buddha
relic has been sent to the King of Siam, the only Buddhist king. Much
has been done by the government in publishing and providing casts and
photographs; but India yet needs a scientific archæologist to record
details with the accuracy demanded by modern research.