were in feudal dependence upon the larger ones. It must be borne in mind, however, that the Greeks knew only of the kingdoms of Northern India; all to the south of the boundary of Hindostan Proper was as yet very dark. There is no evidence of the prevalence of any shocking barbarity or savagery; on the contrary, the manners and polite demeanour of the people are highly praised. The Hindoos were decently, not to say often richly, clothed; they were courteous and intelligent; they observed their laws, and indeed appear, in all essential respects, to have possessed the elements of civilised life in as great a degree as the Greeks themselves. In sciences, the Hindoos had progressed beyond the Greeks; they were better astronomers and mathematicians; and in metaphysics they had displayed as profound thoughts. They had cultivated their language, Sanserit, to the utmost perfection, and had rules for prosody, for poetry, and prose composition. In discussing the most abstract problems of philosophy and logic, they at least equalled many of the most eminent of the Greeks. Learning, however, was still confined almost exclusively to the Brahmins, and by any other classes could only be procured at great risk, and under the frightful penalties of the laws of Menoo. In all respects, therefore, the testimony of the Greeks to the existing condition of Hindoo society is most valuable, not only in relation to its peculiar period, but as exhibiting how little, comparatively speaking, that society has since changed. Effects of the tion. The expedition of Alexander, and the intercourse so long maintained afterwards with India by the Greeks, Greek expedi- opened out, as it were, not only eastern stores of knowledge, but of traffic to western nations. It was claimed by a Greek philosopher, Diodorus Siculus, for Alexander, that the real foundation for his eastern expedition was the philanthropic hope of uniting all the peoples of the countries he should pass through with his own, and the collection of all the products of the eastern world at his great emporium Alexandria; and had he survived to undertake another, there is little doubt the result would have been much more complete and effective. It is certain, however, that a great increase of traffic followed the close of the Indian expedition; and as products could not be bought or sold without local agents, it resulted that Greek, Persian, Syrian, Babylonian, and perhaps Egyptian merchants visited, and even resided in, different parts of India. Intercourse, therefore, between the east and west became more frequent and more materially and practically useful. It broke down the exclusiveness which, owing to their situation, the Hindoos had as yet maintained; and though it was not immediately realised in the complete manner which the great Greek monarch had hoped for, yet was never afterwards interrupted, and never ceased to increase. CH. XI. INVASION OF ALEXANDER. CHAPTER XI. FROM THE INVASION OF ALEXANDER TO THE END OF THE MAURYAN DYNASTY, B.C. 327 TO 195. 49 = Death of the Great. ABOUT two years after his return from India, and before another Of Maghada, several kings in succession bore the name of Nanda; hence they are sometimes mentioned as the Nandá dynasty. The last Nandá was put to death by his chief minister; and a person named Chandra Goopta-called Sandracottus by the Greeks a man of low extraction, but of great ability, became king, and founded what was styled the Mauryan Establishdynasty. Chandra Goopta had served in the army of ment of the Pórus, on the invasion of Alexander, and after his de- dynasty. parture headed an insurrection by which the Greek posts were Mauryan 1 From Nág, a serpent (Cobra di Capella). E ๆ driven out of the Punjab. At this time also, according to Justin,1 he possessed himself of the kingdoms of Pórus and of Taxiles, and was therefore independent at the time of his election to the throne of Maghada: or he may have been powerful enough to seize the throne after the murder of the king. The revolution in Maghada happened in 325 B.C., only two years after Alexander's invasion of India, and one year before his death, which, as already mentioned, occurred at Babylon, in 324. During the early portion of Chandra Goopta's reign, India was invaded by Seleuchus, who was opposed by him; but peace having ensued, Seleuchus sent Megasthenes, an eminent Greek philosopher, as his representative to the Maghada court, and he resided at Palibóthra for many years. He was a man with shrewd, intelligent powers of observation; and it is from the portions of his writings which have survived, that the accounts of the Hindoo people of that period are derived. Chandra Goopta consolidated the whole of the northern, and much of the eastern, portion of India into one monarchy; and during his reign great progress was made in traffic, not only with western nations by land, but by sea with those of the east. Hindoos founded colonies in Java and Siam, and introduced their religion into those countries. In India, roads were marked out for travellers, resting-places or inns were established, and the police is mentioned by Megasthenes in high terms of praise. As yet the national religion of Northern India was not altered, for Chandra Goopta was a Hindoo, and followed the established Brahminical tenets. Reign of Sakya Munee, or Boodh, as has been explained in Chapter IX., Progress of died in 543 B.C., so that the doctrines he preached had Boodhism. been prevalent for upwards of 200 years. Although they had made very extensive progress, they had by no means, as yet, greatly affected Hindooism, though they may have checked its idolatry, and restrained the power and broken the exclusive character of the Brahmins. Hitherto, learning had been confined to them, and to the Sanscrit language as its medium; but Chandra Goopta began to cultivate the spoken language Páli, a dialect of Sanscrit, and thus threw open the acquisition of knowledge to his people. This, and many other popular and benevolent measures, were carried out in Chandra Goopta's reign, which continued for twenty-five years. He died in 300 or 301 B.C., and was succeeded by his son, Mitra Goopta, or Bimbisárá, as he is variously styled. He also was a Hindoo; but the Boodhists were tolerated, if not actually pro 1 Lib. xv. p. 4. Death of Seleuchus founds AN B.C. 300. Death of tected, by him. He renewed the treaties with Seleuchus, tioch, &c., and maintained the honour and glory of his kingdom, till his death, 275-6 B.C., after a reign of twenty-five years, Mitra Goopta. and was succeeded by Asóka, who, during the reign of Asóka, his his grandfather, Chandra Goopta, had given promise of son, succeeds. great ability. acts. When Asóka ascended the throne of Maghada, the kingdom extended from the mouths of the Ganges on the east His domito those of the Indus on the west, thus embracing not nions. only all the northern provinces of India as far as Bactria, but portions of the Dekhun. The limits of this widely-spread dominion are marked by stone pillars with inscriptions recorded upon them, in the Páli language, many of which still remain. They are traced from Orissa, on the west of Bengal Proper, to beyond Kabool, in Afghanistan. At Girnar, in Kutch, Asóka's edicts were carved upon granite rocks, and are still perfectly legible; and their collection and translation by Mr. James Prinsep, who first discovered a key to the character used by Asóka, and other eminent Oriental scholars, has thrown a flood of light upon the transac- Asóka's chations of this remote period. They prove Asóka to have racter and been a singularly wise and benevolent monarch, ardent in the advancement of civilisation, and earnest in the protection of his subjects. By him, the first popular courts of justice known in India were established; they were of several degrees, civil and criminal, suitable to the wants of the people, and by them capital punishment was abolished. Means of traffic and communication by roads were also extended. At an early period after His adoption his accession to the throne, Asóka renounced the Hindoo of the faith, and joined the Boodhist, which became that of faith. the nation at large. After a great synod, held in 286 B.C., religious and political missions were dispatched to neigh- Boodhist bouring and distant countries, and Tibet, China, missious. Burmah, Cambodia, Siam, Java, and Ceylon, received the Boodhist missionaries with a strange and fervent ardour, so that millions of converts were made; nor is it improbable that Boodhism may have been preached in Britain, as it was in Greece. Boodhist Asóka maintained friendly intercourse with Grecian and Syrian monarchs, and with Egypt, and brought many of the useful arts and sciences of those countries into his own. To him can be traced the commencement of architecture and sculpture Commencein India, as applied to religious and other public ment of edifices, which may have been introduced from Bactria, or possibly from Greece itself. It has been ascertained beyond a doubt, that before his reign architecture was not applied to public buildings, as temples and the like; in fact, that none existed: and architecture. it may be assumed that even up to Asóka's period, the most populous cities consisted of little better than clay or wooden dwellings. This too may account for the disappearance—as in the cases of Palibóthra, Paithána, and other cities known to the Greeks-of all traces of them at the present time. It may be concluded, therefore, from the perfectly authentic details of Asóka's reign, that the Aryan population was not only materially advanced in civilisation and political power, but became less exclusive in character and religious belief. While he lived, Boodhism attained, perhaps, its greatest extent and authority in India. Hindooism was not, however, entirely suppressed, and the Brahmins, while they were no longer recognised as the dominant heads of religious society, were yet respected as learned men, and were not interfered with so long as they did not come into collision \with the progress of the new religion. Romans over 223 B.C. Asóka died in the year 226 B.C., having reigned thirty-seven Victory of the years, in great usefulness and splendour. After that the Gauls, event his noble empire declined. His three sons divided it between them; and, with their descendants, the great Asóka dies. Mauryan dynasty, established by Chandra Goopta, ceased to exist about 195 B.C., having lasted about 139 years. It was the first which came into intimate and prolonged connection with the Greeks, and from this cause, and the inscriptions and edicts recorded by Asóka and others, becomes actually historical, without end of Second the mist of mere tradition and allegory which ac of Battle of Punic War, companies all its predecessors. One of the earliest specimens of architecture perhaps in India is the Boodhist stupa, or shrine, at Sanchy, in Central India, which was commenced in 255 B.C., the celebrated seventeenth year of Asóka's reign. It is a noble and curious work, which, with a similar but later erection at Amravati, on the Krishna river, have lately been brought to public notice. Several of the cave temples and Viharas, or monasteries, excavated from the solid rock in various localities, belong to this dynasty, which, till its close, appears to have consistently professed the Boodhist faith. Extinction They form the subject of a noble volume illustrative of Tree and Serpent Worship in connection with Boodhism, written by J. Fergusson, Esq., F.R.S., and published under the authority of the Secretary of State for India, 1868. |