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The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c7: Chapter I. I. Introduction

The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c7

Language
English

Contents

Chapter I. I. Introduction

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The illustrious Elphinstone, writing in 1839, observed that in Indian history ‘no *date* of a public event can be fixed before the invasion of Alexander; and no *connected relation* of the national transactions can be attempted until after the Mahometan conquest’. Professor Cowell, when commenting upon this dictum, twenty-seven years later, begged his readers to bear it in mind during the whole of the Hindu period; assigning as his reason for this caution the fact that ‘it is only at those points where other nations came into contact with the Hindus, that we are able to settle any details accurately.’¹

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¹ Elphinstone, *History of India*, ed. Cowell, 5th ed., p. 11.

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Although the first clause of Elphinstone’s proposition, if strictly interpreted, still remains true—no date in Indian history prior to Alexander’s invasion being determinable with absolute precision—modern research has much weakened the force of the observation, and has enabled scholars to fix a considerable number of dates in the pre-Alexandrine history of India with approximate accuracy, sufficient for most purposes.

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But when the statement that a connected narrative of events prior to the Muhammadan conquest cannot be prepared is examined in the light of present knowledge, the immense progress in the recovery of the lost history of India made during the last seventy years becomes apparent. The researches of a multitude of scholars working in various fields have disclosed an unexpected wealth of materials for the reconstruction of ancient Indian history; and the necessary preliminary studies of a technical kind have been carried so far that the accumulated and ever-growing stores of knowledge can be sorted and arranged with advantage. It now appears to be practicable to exhibit the results of antiquarian studies in the shape of a 'connected relation'; not less intelligible to the ordinary educated reader than Elphinstone's narrative of the transactions of the Muhammadan period.

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The first attempt to present such a narrative of the leading events in Indian political history for eighteen centuries was made in the first edition of this book, which, even in its now much expanded form, is still designedly confined for the most part to the relation of political vicissitudes. A sound framework of dynastic annals must be provided before the story of Indian religion, literature, and art can be told aright. Although religious, literary, and artistic problems are touched on very lightly in this volume, the references made will suffice, perhaps, to convince the reader that the key is often to be found in the accurate chronological presentation of dynastic facts.

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European students, whose attention has been mainly directed to the Graeco-Roman foundation of modern civilization, may be disposed to agree with the German philosopher in the belief that 'Chinese, Indian, and Egyptian antiquities are never more than curiosities';¹ but, however well founded that opinion may have been in Goethe's day, it can no longer command assent. The researches of orientalists during the last hundred years have established many points of contact between the ancient East and the modern West; and no Hellenist can now afford to profess complete ignorance of the Babylonian and Egyptian culture which forms the bedrock of European institutions. Even China has been brought into touch with Europe; while the languages, literature, art, and philosophy of the West have been proved to be connected by innumerable bonds with those of India. Although the names of even the greatest monarchs of ancient India are at present unfamiliar to the general reader, and awaken few echoes in the minds of any save specialists, it is not unreasonable to hope that an orderly presentation of the ascertained facts of ancient Indian history may be of interest to a larger circle than that of professed orientalists, and that, as the subject becomes more familiar to the reading public, it will be found no less worthy of attention than better known departments of historical study. A recent Indian author justly observes that ‘India suffers to-day in the estimation of the world more through that world’s ignorance of the achievements of the heroes of Indian history than through the absence or insignificance of such achievements’.¹ The following pages may serve to prove that the men of old time in India did deeds worthy of remembrance, and deserving of rescue from the oblivion in which they have been buried for so many centuries.

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¹ *The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe*, No. 325, in Bailey Saunders's translation.

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¹ C. N. K. Aiyar, *Sri Sancharacharya, his Life and Times*, p. iv.

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The section of this work which deals with the invasion of Alexander the Great may claim to make a special appeal to the interest of readers trained in the ordinary course of classical studies; and the subject has been treated accordingly with much fulness of detail. The existing English accounts of Alexander’s marvellous campaign, among which that of Thirlwall, perhaps, is entitled to the highest place, treat the story as an appendix to the history of Greece rather than as part of that of India, and fail to make full use of the results of the labours of modern geographers and archaeologists. In this volume the campaign is discussed as a memorable episode in the history of India, and an endeavour has been made to collect all the rays of light from recent investigation and to focus them upon the narratives of ancient authors.

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The author’s aim is to present the story of ancient India, as far as practicable, in the form of a connected narrative, based upon the most authentic evidence available; to relate facts, however established, with impartiality: and to discuss the problems of history in a judicial spirit. He has striven to realize, however imperfectly, the ideal expressed in the words of Goethe:—

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‘The historian’s duty is to separate the true from the false, the certain from the uncertain, and the doubtful from that which cannot be accepted. . . . Every investigator must before all things look upon himself as one who is summoned

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to serve on a jury. He has only to consider how far the statement of the case is complete and clearly set forth by the evidence. Then he draws his conclusion and gives his vote, whether it be that his opinion coincides with that of the foreman or not.’ ¹

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¹ *The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe*, Nos. 453, 543.

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The application of these principles necessarily involves the wholesale rejection of mere legend as distinguished from tradition, and the omission of many picturesque anecdotes, mostly folk-lore, which have clustered round the names of the mighty men of old in India.

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The historian of the remote past of any nation must be content to rely much upon tradition as embodied in literature, and to acknowledge that the results of his researches when based upon traditionary materials, are inferior in certainty to those obtainable for periods of which the facts are attested by contemporary evidence. In India, with very few exceptions, contemporary evidence of any kind is not available before the time of Alexander ; but critical examination of records dated much later than the events referred to can extract from them testimony which may be regarded with a high degree of probability as traditionally transmitted from the sixth or, perhaps, the seventh century, B. C.

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Even contemporary evidence, when it is available for later periods, cannot be accepted without criticism. The flattery of courtiers, the vanity of kings, and many other clouds which obscure the absolute truth, must be recognized and allowed for. Nor is it possible for the writer of a history, however great may be his respect for the objective fact, to eliminate altogether his own personality. Every kind of evidence, even the most direct, must reach the reader, when presented in narrative form, as a reflection from the mirror of the writer’s mind, with the liability to unconscious distortion. In the following pages the author has endeavoured to exclude the subjective element so far as possible, to make no statement of fact without authority, and to give the authority, that is to say, the evidence, for every fact alleged.

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But no obligation to follow authority in the other sense of the word has been accepted, and the narrative often assumes a form apparently justified by the evidence, although opposed to the views stated in well-known books by authors of repute. Indian history has been too much the sport of credulity and hypothesis, inadequately checked by critical judgement of evidence, or verification of fact; and 'the opinion of the foreman', to use Goethe's phrase, cannot be implicitly followed.

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Although this work purports to relate the Early History of India, the title must be understood with certain limitations. India, encircled as she is by seas and mountains, is indisputably a geographical unit, and, as such, is rightly designated by one name. Her type of civilization, too, has many features which differentiate it from that of all other regions of the world, while they are common to the whole country, or rather sub-continent, in a degree sufficient to justify its treatment as a unit in the history of the social, religious, and intellectual development of mankind.¹

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¹ See Radhakumud Mookerji, M.A., *The Fundamental Unity of India* (from Hindu sources), Longmans, Green & Co. 1914.

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But the complete political unity of India under the control of a paramount power, wielding unquestioned authority, is a thing of yesterday, barely a century old.² The most notable of her rulers in the olden time cherished the ambition of universal Indian dominion, and severally attained it in a greater or less degree. Not one of them, however, attained it completely, and this failure involves a lack of unity in political history which renders the task of the historian difficult.

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² It may be dated from 1818, at the close of the Pindārī and Marātha wars of the Marquis of Hastings.

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The same difficulty besets the historian of Greece still more pressingly; but, in that case, with the attainment of unity the interest of the history vanishes. In the case of India the converse proposition holds good, and the reader's interest varies directly with the degree of unity attained; the details of Indian annals being insufferably wearisome except when generalized by the application of a bond of political union.

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A political history of India, if it is to be read, must necessarily tell the story of the predominant dynasties, and either ignore, or relegate to a very subordinate position, the annals of the minor states. Elphinstone acted upon this principle in his classic work, practically confining his narrative to the transactions of the Sultans of Delhi and their Moghal successors. The same principle has been applied in this book, attention being concentrated upon the dominant dynasties which, from time to time, have aspired to or attained paramount power.

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Twice, in the long series of centuries dealt with in this history, the political unity of all India was nearly attained; first, in the third century B. C., when Asoka's empire extended almost to the latitude of Madras; and again, in the fourth century after Christ, when Samudragupta carried his victorious arms from the Ganges to the borders of the Tamil country. Other princes, although their conquests were less extensive, yet succeeded in establishing, and for a time maintaining, empires which might fairly claim to rank as paramount powers. With the history of such princes the following narrative is chiefly concerned, the affairs of the minor states being either slightly noticed, or altogether ignored.

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The paramount power in early times, when it existed, invariably had its seat in Northern India—the region of the Gangetic plain lying to the north of the great barrier of jungle-clad hills which shut off the Deccan from Hindustan. That barrier may be defined conveniently as consisting of the Vindhyan ranges, using that term in a wide sense; or may be identified, still more compendiously, with the river Narmadā, or Nerbudda, which falls into the Gulf of Cambay, and flows between the Vindhyan and Sātpura ranges.¹

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¹ Mr. Pargiter holds that a careful examination of the names of rivers and mountains in Canto 57 of the *Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa* indicates that in ancient times the name Vindhya was confined to the eastern part of the range to the north of the Narmadā, extending from about Bhopāl to Bihār, the more western part of the range along with the Aravallis (Aṛāvalā) being included under the term Pāripātra (*J. R. A. S.*, 1894, p. 258). Modern writers apply the term Vindhya to the whole range north of the river.

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The researches of Dr. Fleet, Professor Kielhorn, and many other patient scholars have revealed in outline much of the history of the kingdoms of the Deccan plateau lying between the Narmadā on the north and the Krishnā and Tungabhadra on the south, from the sixth century after Christ. But the details are mainly of local interest and can never attract the attention of the outer world to the same degree as can the history of the northern empires, constantly in touch with that world.

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The ancient kingdoms of the far south, although rich and populous, inhabited by Dravidian nations not inferior in culture to their Aryan rivals in the north, were ordinarily so secluded from the rest of the civilized world, including Northern India, that their affairs remained hidden from the eyes of other nations; and, native annalists being lacking, their history, previous to the year 800 of the Christian era, has almost wholly perished. Except on the rare occasions when an unusually enterprising sovereign of the north either penetrated or turned the forest barrier, and for a moment lifted the veil of secrecy in which the southern potentates lived enwrapped, very little is known concerning political events in the far south during the long period extending from 600 B. C. to A. D. 800. To use the words of Elphinstone, no 'connected relation of the national transactions' of Southern India in remote times can be written; and an early history of India must, perforce, be concerned mainly with the north.

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Although it is still as true as it was when the first edition of this book was published, that an exact chronological narrative of the purely political history of the Tamil kingdoms of Southern India previous to A. D. 800 cannot be written at present, and it is possible that such a history cannot be written at any time, I must not be understood to mean that the early history of the South is either wholly inaccessible or devoid of interest. On the contrary, I believe that, if we can be content to dispense with precise chronology, materials exist for the reconstruction in no small measure of the history of Dravidian institutions, and that a history of that kind, when worked out by scholars adequately skilled in the languages, literatures, and customs of the Dravidian peoples, will be of essential service to the historian of India as a whole, and will enable the student of the development of Indian civilization to see his subject in true perspective.

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Attention has been concentrated too long on the North, on Sanskrit books, and on Indo-Aryan notions. It is time that due regard should be paid to the non-Aryan element.

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This book being deliberately confined almost exclusively to the summary presentation of the political history of India, I am precluded from following out the suggested line of research, but I cannot refrain from quoting certain observations of an eminent Indian scholar, prematurely deceased, which seem to me worthy of serious consideration, and are as follows:—

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‘The attempt to find the basic element of Hindu civilization by a study of Sanskrit and the history of Sanskrit in Upper India is to begin the problem at its worst and most complicated point. India, south of the Vindhyas—the Peninsular India—still continues to be India Proper. Here the bulk of the people continue distinctly to retain their pre-Aryan teatures, their pre-Aryan languages, their pre-Aryan social institutions. Even here, the process of Aryanization has gone indeed too far to leave it easy for the historian to distinguish the native warp from the foreign woof. But, if there is anywhere any chance of such successful disentanglement, it is in the South; and the farther South we go the larger does the chance grow.

The scientific historian of India, then, ought to begin his study with the basin of the Krishna, of the Cauvery, of the Vaigai, rather than with the Gangetic plain, as it has been now long, too long, the fashion.’¹

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¹ The late Prof. Sundaram Pillai, as quoted in *Tamilian Antiquary*, No. 2 (1908), p. 4.

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When the ideal Early History of India, including institutions as well as political vicissitudes, comes to be written on a large scale, it may be that the hints given by the learned Professor will be acted on, and that the historian will begin with the South. But the time is not yet ripe for such revolutionary treatment of the subject, and at present I must follow the old fashion.

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An attempt to present in narrative form the history of the ancient dominant dynasties of Northern India is, therefore, the primary purpose of this work. The story of the great southern kingdoms, being known too imperfectly to permit of treatment on the same scale, necessarily occupies less space ; while the annals of the innumerable minor states in every part of the country seldom offer matter of sufficient general interest to warrant narration in detail. In the fourteenth chapter, the reader will find a condensed account of the more salient events in the story of the principal mediaeval kingdoms of the north ; and the two succeeding chapters are devoted to an outline of the fortunes of the kingdoms of the Deccan tableland and the Peninsula, so far as they are known, from the earliest times to the Muhammadan invasion at the beginning of the fourteenth century.

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The time dealt with is that extending from the commencement of the historical period in 650 or 600 B. C. to the Muhammadan conquest, which may be dated in round numbers as having occurred in A. D. 1200 in the north, and a century later in the south. The earliest political event in India to which an approximately correct date can be assigned is the establishment of the Saiśunāga dynasty of Magadha about 642 B. C., a few years before the beginning of 'the sixth century—that wonderful century—a cardinal epoch in human history, if ever there was one'.

II. Sources of Indian History

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The sources of, or original authorities for, the early history of India may be arranged in four classes. The first of these is tradition, chiefly as recorded in native literature ; the second consists of those writings of foreign travellers and historians which contain observations on Indian subjects ; the third is the evidence of archaeology, which may be subdivided into the monumental, the epigraphic, and the numismatic ; and the fourth comprises the few works of native contemporary, or nearly contemporary, literature which deal expressly with historical subjects.

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For the period anterior to Alexander the Great, extending from 600 B. C. to 326 B. C., dependence must be placed almost wholly upon literary tradition, communicated through works composed in many different ages, and frequently recorded in scattered incidental notices. The purely Indian traditions are supplemented by the notes of the Greek authors, Ktēsias, Herodotus, the historians of Alexander, Megasthenes and others.

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The Kashmīr Chronicle, composed in the twelfth century, which is in form the nearest approach to a work of regular history in extant Sanskrit literature, contains a large body of confused ancient traditions, which can be used only with much caution. It is also of high value as a trustworthy record of local events for the period contemporary with, or slightly preceding, the author's lifetime.¹

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¹ *Kalhaṇa's Rājātaraṅgiṇī, a Chronicle of the Kings of Kaśmīr*, translated with an Introduction, Commentary, and Appendices, by M. A. Stein (2 vols., Constable, 1900). This monumental work is as creditable to the enterprise of the publishers as it is to the industry and learning of the translator, who has also produced a critical edition of the text.

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The great Sanskrit epics, the Mahābhārata and Rāmāyana, while of value as traditional pictures of social life in the heroic age, do not seem to contain matter illustrating the political relations of states during the historical period.

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Linguistic specialists have extracted from the works of grammarians and other authors many incidental references to ancient tradition, which collectively amount to a considerable addition to historical knowledge. Such passages from Sanskrit and Prākrit literature, so far as they have come to my notice, have been utilized in this work; but some may have escaped attention.

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The sacred books of the Jain sect, which are still very imperfectly known, also contain numerous historical statements and allusions of considerable value.²

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² Some of the leading Jain texts have been translated by Prof. Hermann Jacobi (*S. B. E.*, vols. xxii, xlv). For full information on all publications relating to Jainism see Dr. A. Guérinot's fine work, *Essai de Bibliographie Jaina, répertoire analytique et méthodique des travaux relatifs au Jainisme* (Paris, Leroux, 1906; pp. 568), and the supplement to it, entitled 'Notes de Bibliographie Jaina' (*J. As.*, Juillet-Août 1909). The reader may also consult Barodia, *History and Literature of Jainism*, Bombay, 1909; and Mrs. Sinclair Stevenson’s works, especially *The Heart of Jainism*, Oxford University Press, 1915. Jagmanderlal Jaini’s *Outlines of Jainism*, Cambridge University Press, 1916, is an authoritative work. A good summary of the early history of Jainism in English is given by Dr. Hoernle in his presidential address to the Asiatic Society of Bengal (*Proc. A. S. B.*, 1898, pp. 39–53). Bühler’s tract *Ueber die indische Secte der Jaina* (1887) was ed. and transl. by Burgess (1903), with many errors in the rendering (*Z. D. M. G.*, 1906, p. 384).

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The Jātaka, or Birth stories, and other books of the Buddhist canon, include many incidental references to the political condition of India in the fifth and sixth centuries B. C., which although not exactly contemporary with the events alluded to, certainly transmit genuine historical tradition.¹

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¹ A complete translation of the *Jātakas*, initiated by the late Prof. Cowell, and executed by Dr. W. H. D. Rouse and other scholars, has been published (Cambridge 1895–1907, and Index 1913). For a theory as to the date of the collection see Rhys Davids’s *Buddhist India*, pp. 189–208.

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The chronicles of Ceylon in the Pāli language, of which the *Dīpavaṁsa*, dating probably from the fourth century after Christ, and the *Mahāvaṁsa*, about a century and a half later in date, are the best known, offer several discrepant versions of early Indian traditions, chiefly concerning the Maurya dynasty. These Sinhalese stories, the value of which has been sometimes overestimated, demand cautious criticism at least as much as do other records of popular and ecclesiastical tradition.²

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² For a favourable view of the Ceylon chronicles see Rhys Davids’s *Buddhist India*; and, on the other side, Foulkes, ‘The Vicissitudes of the Buddhist Literature of Ceylon’ (*Ind. Ant.* xvii, 100); ‘Buddhaghosa’ (ibid. xix, 105); Taw Sein Ko, ‘Kalyāṇi Inscriptions’ (ibid. xxii, 14); V. A. Smith, *Asoka, the Buddhist Emperor of India*, 3rd ed. 1920. The *Mahāvaṁsa* exists in more recensions than one; but that ordinarily quoted is the one translated by Turnour, whose version has been revised by Wijesimha. The latest version is that by Prof. Geiger and Mrs. Bode (*J. Pāli Text Soc.*, 1912). Mr. John Still’s *Index to the Mahawansa* (Colombo, 1907), is useful. The *Dīpavaṁśa* has been translated by Prof. Oldenberg. See Geiger, *Dīpavaṁśa und Mahāvaṁśa* (Leipzig, Böhme, 1905; Engl. transl. in *Ind. Ant.*, 1906, p. 153).

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The most systematic record of Indian historical tradition is that preserved in the dynastic lists of the Purāṇas. Five out of the eighteen works of this class, namely, the Vāyu, Matsya, Vishṇu, Brahmāṇḍa, and Bhāgavata contain such lists. The Brahmāṇḍa and the Vāyu, as well as the Matsya, which has large later additions, appear to be the earliest and most authoritative. Theory required that a Purāṇa should deal with 'the five topics of primary creation, secondary creation, genealogies of gods and patriarchs, reigns of various Manus, and the histories of the old dynasties of kings'. The last named of the five topics is the only one which concerns the historian.¹ Modern European writers have been inclined to disparage unduly the authority of the Purāṇic lists, but closer study finds in them much genuine and valuable historical tradition.

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¹ Macdonell, *Hist. of Sanskrit Literature*, p. 301. The *Vishṇu Purāṇa* was translated by H. H. Wilson, whose version was improved and annotated by Hall. The relative dates of the different Purāṇas, as stated by Bhandarkar in *Early Hist. of the Dekkan*, 2nd ed., p. 162 (*Bombay Gazetteer* (1896), vol. i, part ii) are corrected by the more recent researches of Mr. Pargiter, for which see App. A at the end of this chapter.

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The earliest foreign notice of India is that in the inscriptions of the Persian king, Darius, son of Hystaspes, at Persepolis and Naksh-i-Rustam, the latter of which may be referred to the year 486 B. C.² Herodotus, who wrote late in the fifth century, contributes valuable information concerning the relation between India and the Persian empire, which supplements the less detailed statements of the inscriptions. The fragments of the works of Ktēsias of Knidos, who was physician to Artaxerxes Mnemon in 401 B. C., and amused himself by collecting travellers' tales about the wonders of the East, are of very slight value.³

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² Rawlinson, *Herodotus*, vol. ii, p. 403; iv, 207.

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³ Translated by McCrindle in *Ind. Ant.* x, 296; the translation was also published separately at Calcutta in 1882. All the pre-Alexandrine notices of India are laboriously collected and discussed by Wilhelm Reese in *Die griechischen Nachrichten über Indien bis zum Feldzuge Alexanders des Grossen*, a pamphlet of 106 pages including bibliography, Teubner, Leipzig, 1914. The notices include scraps from Aristotle, who seems to have used Hecataeus and Ktēsias. Herodotus seems to rest on Hecataeus and Skylax.

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Europe was practically ignorant of India until the veil was lifted by Alexander's operations and the reports of his officers. Some twenty years after his death the Greek ambassadors sent by the kings of Syria and Egypt to the court of the Maurya emperors recorded careful observations on the country to which they were accredited, which have been partially preserved in the works of many Greek and Roman authors. The fragments of Megasthenes are especially valuable.¹

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¹ Edited by Schwanbeck, Bonn, 1846; translated by McCrindle, 1877.

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Arrian, a Graeco-Roman official of the second century after Christ, wrote a capital description of India, as well as an admirable critical history of Alexander's invasion. Both these works being based upon the reports of Ptolemy son of Lagos, and other officers of Alexander, and the writings of the Greek ambassadors, are entitled to a large extent to the credit of contemporary documents, so far as the Indian history of the fourth century B. C. is concerned. The works of Quintus Curtius and other authors, who essayed to tell the story of Alexander's Indian campaign, are far inferior in value; but each has merits of its own.²

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² Most of the Greek and Roman notices of India have been collected, translated, and discussed by McCrindle in six useful books, published between 1882 and 1901, and dealing with (1) Ktēsias, (2) *Indika* of Megasthenes and Arrian, (3) *Periplus of the Erythraean Sea*, (4) Ptolemy's *Geography*, (5) Alexander's Invasion, and (6) Ancient India, as described by other classical writers. The latest version of the *Periplus* is that by W. H. Schoff (1912).

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The philosophical romance, composed in honour of Apollonios of Tyana by Philostratos 'the Athenian' about A. D. 215–18 at the request of the empress Julia Domna, professes to give minute and interesting details of the observations made by the hero of the book in the course of a tour through north-western India, which according to Professor Petrie took place in the cold season of A. D. 43–4. If the details recorded could be trusted this account would be invaluable, but so much of the story is obviously fiction that few statements by the author can be accepted with confidence. Although it is not certain that Apollonios visited India at all, he had access to correct information on certain points, which has been confirmed by modern researches.³

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³ Concerning the credibility of the tale see Priaulx, *The Indian Travels of Apollonius of Tyana, &c.* (Quaritch, 1873, a very rare book); Prof. Flinders Petrie, *Personal Religion in Egypt before Christianity*, 1909; the two translations of the work of Philostratos published by Prof. Phillimore and F. C. Conybeare in 1913; V. A. Smith's paper 'The Indian Travels of Apollonius of Tyana' (*Z. D. M. G.*, 1914); and Marshall, *A Guide to Taxila* (Calcutta, 1918), pp. 15, 91.

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The Chinese ‘Father of history’, Ssŭ-ma-ch’ien, ‘the Herodotus of China’, who completed his work about 100 B. C., is the first of a long series of Chinese historians, whose writings throw much light upon the early annals of India. The accurate chronology of the Chinese authors gives their statements peculiar value.¹

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¹ Chavannes has published five volumes, out of nine, 47 chapters out of 130, of a translation of Ssŭ-ma-ch'ien. The French sinologists have been specially active in exploring the Chinese sources of Indian history, and several of their publications will be cited in later chapters. For the chronology, the work entitled *Synchronismes chinois*, by Le P. Mathias Tchang, S. J. (Chang-Hai, 1905), is very useful.

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The stream of Chinese Buddhist pilgrims who continued for several centuries to visit India, which they regarded as their Holy Land, begins with Fa-hien (Fa-hsien); who started on his travels in A. D. 399, and returned to China fifteen years later. The book in which he recorded his journeys has been preserved complete, and translated once into French, and four times into English. It includes a very interesting and valuable description of the government and social condition of the Gangetic provinces during the reign of Chandra-gupta II, Vikramāditya.² He visited Ceylon in A. D. 412 during the reign of Buddhadāsa.³ Several other pilgrims left behind them works which contribute something to the elucidation of Indian history, and their testimony will be cited in due course.

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² In order to prevent confusion, the name of Chandragupta Maurya is printed without the hyphen, and that of Chandra-gupta I and II of the Gupta dynasty with it.

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³ He thus preceded Buddhaghosha's visit by some seventy years (Ayrton in *The Ceylon Antiquary and Literary Register*, Oct. 1915, p. 98).

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The prince of pilgrims, the illustrious Hiuen Tsang, whose fame as Master of the Law still resounds through all Buddhist lands, deserves more particular notice. His travels, described in a work entitled *Records of the Western World*, which has been translated into French, English, and German, extended from A. D. 629 to 645, and covered an enormous area, including almost every part of India, except the extreme south. His book is a treasure-house of accurate information, indispensable to every student of Indian antiquity, and has done more than any archaeological discovery to render possible the remarkable resuscitation of lost Indian history which has been recently effected. Although the chief historical value of Hiuen Tsang's work consists in its contemporary description of political, religious, and social institutions, the pilgrim has increased the debt of gratitude due to his memory by recording a considerable mass of ancient tradition, which would have been lost but for his care to preserve it. The *Life of Hiuen Tsang*, composed by his friend Hwui-li, contributes many details supplemental to the narrative in the *Records*,¹ though not quite so trustworthy.

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¹ See Appendix B, *The Chinese Pilgrims*, at the end of this chapter.

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The learned mathematician and astronomer, Albērūnī, almost the only Muhammadan scholar who has ever taken the trouble to master Sanskrit, essentially a language of idolatrous unbelievers, when regarded from a Muslim point of view, entered India in the train of Mahmūd of Ghaznī. His work, descriptive of the country, and entitled 'An Enquiry into India' (*Taḥḳīḳ-i-Hind*), which was finished in A. D. 1030, is of high value as an account of Hindu manners, science, and literature; but contributes comparatively little information which can be utilized for the purposes of political history.²

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² Edited and translated by Sachau. Raverty points out that the title of Albērūnī's work is *Taḥḳīḳ*-, not *Tārīkh-i-Hind* (*J. A. S. B.*, 1872, part I, p. 186 note). The author's full designation was Abū-Rihān, Muhammad, son of Ahmad; but he became familiarly known as the *Ustād*, or Master, Bū-Rihān, surnamed Al-Bērūnī (ibid.).

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The visit of the Venetian traveller, Marco Polo, to Southern India in A. D. 1294-5 just comes within the limits of this volume.³

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³ M. Cordier brought out a new edition of Yule's version in 1903.

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The Muhammadan historians of India are valuable authorities for the history of the conquest by the armies of Islam; and the early Muslim travellers throw much light upon the condition of the mediaeval Hindu kingdoms.⁴

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⁴ The works of both the historians and the travellers are most conveniently consulted in Elliot and Dowson's *History of India as told by its own Historians*, 8 vols., 1867-77; a valuable work, although not free from errors, many of which have been corrected by Raverty in various publications. Bayley and Dowson's *History of Gujarāt*, 1886 (only one volume published), is a supplement to the general collection. See also Abū Turāb's *History of Gujarāt*, ed. Denison Ross, published by A. S. B., 1909; and Wilberforce-Bell's *The History of Kāthiāwād*, London, 1916.

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The monumental class of archaeological evidence, considered by itself and apart from the inscriptions on the walls of buildings, while it offers little direct contribution to the materials for political history, is of high illustrative value, and greatly helps the student in realizing the power and magnificence of some of the ancient dynasties. The stratification or orderly succession of the layers of ruined buildings, when systematically observed, as it has been by Sir J. H. Marshall, may be made to yield conclusive testimony concerning the relative dates of dynasties and stages of civilization.

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Unquestionably the most copious and important source of early Indian history is the epigraphic; and the accurate knowledge of many periods of the long-forgotten past which has now been attained is derived mainly from the patient study of inscriptions during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The great majority of inscriptions are commemorative, dedicatory, or donative. The first and second classes comprise a vast variety of records, extending from the mere signature of a pilgrim's name to an elaborate panegyrical poem in the most artificial style of Sanskrit verse; and for the most part are incised on stone. The third class, the donative inscriptions, or grants, on the other hand, are mostly engraved on plates of copper, the favourite material used for permanent record of conveyances.

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Pre-eminent among inscriptions of a special character are Asoka's edicts, or sermons on stone, which form a class by themselves; no other sovereign having imitated his practice of engraving ethical exhortations on the rocks. Equally peculiar is the record on tables of stone of two Sanskrit plays at Ajmēr and of a third at Dhār. Also at Dhār on the pillars of the Bhoja Sāla, an old grammar-school, *c.* a. d. 1150, are two curious inscriptions—one 'a chart of the Sanskrit alphabet', the other a table of verbal terminations from the *Katantra*. They are engraved *Sarpabandha*, 'in the form of intertwining serpents with their bodies twisted lengthwise and cross-wise, leaving oblong spaces within for letters.'¹

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¹ *A. S. Prog. Rep. W. I.*, 1917–18, p. 36.

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[Figure: PIPRĀWĀ INSCRIBED VASE CONTAINING RELICS OF BUDDHA (. . . *salilanidhane budhasa bhagavate* . . .)]

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A fragmentary inscription at Chitor, on the great tower, is part of a treatise on architecture.¹ At Kuḍimiyāmalai in the Pudukoṭṭai State is a rock inscription, apparently of the seventh century, containing the score of music for the *vīṇā*.² One of the oddest of these legacies from the past is a slab in Jain temple No. 1 at Deogarh, containing specimens of 18 dialects (*bhāshā*) and 18 scripts, Maurya, Dravidian, &c.³

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¹ Kielhorn, *Bruchstücke indischer Schauspiele in Inschriften zu Ajmere* (Berlin, 1901); Hultzsch, *Archaeol. S. of India, Annual Report, 1903–4*, p. 240; *Progr. Rep. Archaeol. S. W. I.*, 1903–4, pp. 40, 58.

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² *Ep. Ind.*, xii, 226.

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³ See *Heart of Jainism*, p. 274; *Prog. Rep. N. Circle, 1917–18*, p. 10.

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The south of India is peculiarly rich in inscriptions of almost all kinds, both on stone and copper, some of which attain extraordinary length. The known southern inscriptions number several thousands, and many must remain for future discovery. But these records, notwithstanding their abundance, are inferior in interest to the rarer northern documents, by reason of their comparatively recent date. No important southern inscription earlier than the Christian era is known, except the Mysore and Maski editions of Asoka's Minor Rock Edicts and the brief dedications of the Bhattiprolu caskets.⁴ The records prior to the seventh century after Christ are few.

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⁴ *Ep. Ind.*, ii, 323. A few pre-Christian records of little importance exist in Ceylon, and in India brief inscriptions are found in caves in the Arcot region.

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The oldest northern document was supposed at one time to be the dedication of the relics of Buddha at Piprāwā, which was believed to date from about 450 B. C., but more recent criticism has thrown doubt upon that theory.⁵ At present the oldest extant inscription is the Sohgaura copper plate from the Gorakhpur district, which is tentatively assigned to a date about fifty years prior to Asoka. This document, which is concerned with government storehouses, needs further elucidation.⁶ The number of documents prior to the Christian era is much more considerable in the north than in the south. Few records of the third century after Christ have survived, but, if the scheme of Kushān chronology adopted in this work is approximately correct, those of the second century may be described as numerous.

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⁵ Barth., *J. des Savants*, Oct. 1906; *Ind. Ant.*, 1907, pp. 117–24.

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⁶ See *Proc. A. S. B.*, 1894 and Bühler (*Vienna Or. J.*, vol. x (1896), p. 138).

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Although much excellent work has been done, infinitely more remains to be done before the study of Indian inscriptions can be considered as exhausted; and the small body of unselfish workers at the subject is in urgent need of recruits, content to find their reward in the interest of the work itself, the pleasure of discovery, and the satisfaction of adding to the world's knowledge.¹

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¹ See Fleet's article in *Ind. Ant.*, 1901, p. 1, and his chapter 'Epigraphy' in 'The Indian Empire', vol. ii of *Imperial Gazetteer*, 1908. It is impossible to give a complete list of the publications in which Indian inscriptions appear. The properly edited records will be found mostly in the *Indian Antiquary*, *Epigraphia Indica*, *South Indian Inscriptions*, and Dr. Fleet's *Gupta Inscriptions*; but documents, more or less satisfactorily edited, will be met with in almost all the voluminous publications on Indian archaeology. Mr. Lewis Rice has published notices of thousands of southern documents in *Epigraphia Carnatica* and other works, summarized in *Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions* (Constable, 1909). Prof. Kielhorn's and Prof. Lüders's *Lists*, with *Supplements* in *Ep. Ind.*, v, vii, viii, and x are invaluable.

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The numismatic evidence as a whole is more accessible than the epigraphic. Many classes of Indian coins have been discussed in special treatises, and compelled to yield their contributions to history; while a general survey completed by Prof. Rapson enables the student to judge how far the muse of history has been helped by her numismatic handmaid.

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From the time of Alexander's invasion coins afford invaluable aid to the researches of the historian in every period; and for the Bactrian, Indo-Greek, and Indo-Parthian dynasties they constitute almost the sole evidence.²

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² Some of the principal modern works on ancient Indian numismatics are:—Rapson, *Indian Coins* (Strassburg, 1898); and *Catalogue of the Coins of the Andhra Dynasty, &c., in the British Museum*, 1908; Cunningham, *Coins of Ancient India* (1891); *Coins of Mediaeval India* (1894); Von Sallet, *Die Nachfolger Alexanders des Grossen in Baktrien und Indien* (Berlin, 1879); P. Gardner, *The Coins of the Greek and Scythic Kings of Bactria and India in the British Museum* (1886); V. A. Smith, 'Andhra History and Coinage' (*Z. D. M. G.*, 1902, 1903); *Catalogue of Coins in the Indian Museum*, vol. i (1906); Elliot, *Coins of Southern India* (1885); R. B. Whitehead, *Catalogue of the Panjab Museum, Lahore, Indo-Greek Coins* (1914); J. Allan, *Catalogue of the Coins of the Gupta Dynasties and Śaśānka, King of Gauḍa*, with 24 plates, Catal. of Indian Coins in the British Museum; London, 1914. Minor publications are too numerous to specify. The early essays by James Prinsep and other eminent scholars are now mostly obsolete.

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The fourth class of materials for, or sources of, early Indian history, namely, contemporary, or nearly contemporary, native literature of an historical kind, is of limited extent, comprising, in addition to the Kashmīr chronicle (*ante*, p. 10), and local annals of Nepāl and Assam, a few works in Sanskrit and Prākrit, with certain poems in Tamil. None of these works is pure history; they are all of a romantic character, and present the facts with much embellishment.¹

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¹ There are many historical and semi-historical manuscripts in the Mackenzie Collection, of various ages. See *Descriptive Catalogue* by H. H. Wilson (1828; and Madras reprint, 1882).

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The best-known composition of this class is that entitled 'The Deeds of Harsha' (*Harsha-Charita*), written by Bāna, about a.d. 620, in praise of his master and patron, King Harsha of Thānēsar and Kanauj, which is of high value, both as a depository of ancient tradition, and a record of contemporary history, in spite of obvious faults.² A similar work called 'The Deeds of Vikramānka', by Bilhana, a poet of the twelfth century, is devoted to the eulogy of a powerful king who ruled a large territory in the south and west between a.d. 1076 and 1126.³ A valuable poem entitled *Rāmacharita*, dealing with the Pāla kings of Bengal, discovered in 1897, was published in 1910;⁴ and several compositions, mostly by Jain authors, besides that of Bilhana, treat of the history of the Chalukya dynasties of the west.⁵ The earliest of the Tamil poems alluded to is believed to date from the first or second century of the Christian era. These compositions, which include epics and panegyrics on famous kings of the south, appear to contain a good deal of historical matter.⁶

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² Translated by Cowell and Thomas (*Or. Transl. Fund*, *N. S.*, published by R. As. Society, 1897).

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³ Ed. by Bühler with English Introduction in Bombay Sanskrit Series, No. xiv, 1875, and fully described and criticized in *Ind. Ant.*, v (1876), pp. 317, 324; xxx (1901), p. 12.

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⁴ *Memoirs A. S. B.*, vol. iii (1910), pp. 1-56.

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⁵ *Proc. A. S. B.*, 1901, p. 26; G. H. Ojha, *Early History of the Solankīs*, part I, p. 2; Ajmēr, 1907; in Hindi.

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⁶ Analysed by Mr. V. Kanakasabhai Pillai (*Ind. Ant.*, xviii, 259; xix, 329; xxii, 141). See *The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago* by same author; Madras, 1904: S. K. Aiyangar, *Ancient India* (1911); *The Beginnings of South Indian History*, Madras, 1918; M. Srinivasa Aiyangar, *Tamil Studies*, first series, Madras, 1914; and many articles in *The Tamilian Antiquary* and other periodicals.

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The obstacles which prevented for so many years the construction of a continuous narrative of Early Indian History are due not so much to the deficiency of material as to the lack of definite chronology referred to by Elphinstone and Cowell. The rough material is not so scanty as has been supposed. The data for the reconstruction of the early history of all nations are necessarily meagre, largely consisting of bare lists of names supplemented by vague and often contradictory traditions which pass insensibly into popular mythology. The historian of ancient India is fairly well provided with a supply of such lists, traditions, and mythology; which, of course, require to be treated on the strict critical principles applied by modern students to the early histories of both western and eastern nations. The application of those principles in the case of India is not more difficult than it is in Babylonia, Egypt, Greece, or Rome. The real difficulty is the determination of fixed chronological points. A body of history must be supported upon a skeleton of chronology, and without chronology history is impossible.

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The Indian nations, in so far as they maintained a record of political events, kept it by methods of their own, which are difficult to understand, and until recently were not at all understood. The eras used to date events are not only different from those used by other nations, but very numerous and obscure in their origin and application. Cunningham's *Book of Indian Eras* (1883) enumerates more than a score of systems which have been employed at different times and places in India for the computation of dates; and his list might be considerably extended. The successful efforts of several generations of scholars to recover the forgotten history of ancient India have been largely devoted to a study of the local modes of chronological computation, and have resulted in the attainment of accurate knowledge concerning most of the eras used in inscriptions and other documents.¹

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¹ The late Professor Kielhorn, Professor Jacobi, Mr. R. Sewell, and Dr. J. F. Fleet have done specially valuable service in this department, and many other scholars have made valuable contributions to knowledge. Among Indian students of the subject Dīwān L. D. Swamikannu Pillai is pre-eminent.

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Armed with these results, it is now possible for a writer on Indian history to compile a narrative arranged in orderly chronological sequence, which could not have been thought of before the close of the nineteenth century.

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For a long time the only approximately certain date in the early history of India was that of the accession of Chandragupta Maurya, as determined by his identification with Sandrakottos, the contemporary of Seleukos Nikator, according to Greek authors. The synchronism of Chandragupta’s grandson, Asoka, with Antiochos Theos, grandson of Seleukos, and four other Hellenistic princes, having been established subsequently in 1838, the chronology of the Maurya dynasty was placed upon a firm basis, and is no longer open to doubt in its main outlines.

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With the exception of these two synchronisms, and certain dates in the seventh century after Christ, determined by the testimony of the Chinese pilgrim, Hiuen Tsang, the whole scheme of Indian chronology remained indeterminate and exposed to the caprice of every rash guesser.

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A great step in advance was gained by Fleet’s determination of the Gupta era, which had been the subject of much wild conjecture. His demonstration that the year 1 of that era is a. d. 319–20 fixed the chronological position of a most important dynasty, and reduced chaos to order. Fa-hien’s account of the civil administration of the Gangetic provinces at the beginning of the fifth century thus fell into its place as an important historical document illustrating the reign of Chandra-gupta II, Vikramāditya, one of the greatest of Indian kings. Most of the difficulties which continued to embarrass the chronology of the Gupta period, even after the announcement of Fleet’s discovery in 1887, have been removed by M. Sylvain Lévi’s publication of the synchronism of Samudragupta with King Meghavarna of Ceylon (*c.* a. d. 352–79).

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A connected, although imperfect, history of the Āndhra dynasty has been rendered possible by the establishment of synchronisms between the Āndhra kings and the Western satraps.

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In short, the labours of many scholars have succeeded in tracing in firm lines the outline of the history of Northern India from the beginning of the historical period to the Muhammadan conquest, with one important exception, that of the Kushān or Indo-Scythian period, the date of which, to the extent of about forty years, is still open to discussion. The system of Kushān chronology adopted in this volume has much to recommend it, and is sufficiently supported to serve as a good working hypothesis. If it should ultimately secure general acceptance, the whole scheme of North Indian chronology may be considered as settled, although many details will remain to be filled in.

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Much progress has been made in the determination of the chronology of the Southern dynasties, and the dates of the Pallavas, a dynasty the very existence of which was unknown to European students until 1840, have been worked out with special success.

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The foregoing review will, I trust, satisfy my readers that the attempt to write 'a connected relation of the national transactions' of India prior to the Muhammadan conquest is justified by an adequate supply of material facts and sufficient determination of essential chronological data.

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