The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c21.102

c21.102

The North-Indian legends are at least as old ; but being recorded in fragments scattered through many books, Indian, Nepalese, Chinese, and Tibetan, have received scant attention. All legendary material, of course, must be used with extreme caution, and only as a supplement to authentic data ; but a moment's thought will show that legends preserved in Northern India, the seat of Asoka's imperial power, are more likely to transmit genuine tradition than those which reached the distant island of Ceylon in translations brought nobody knows how, when, or whence, and subsequently largely modified by local and sectarian influences. This presumption is verified when the two groups of legends are compared ; and then it clearly appears that in certain matters of importance where they differ, the Northern version is distinctly the more credible.