speaking tribes. Perhaps the Sakkos may have been called by that name, as they, as a distinctively warrior tribe, worshipped Sakko, the warrior god, in contradistinction to the aboriginal tribes who worshipped the local deities. Certainly Sakko is continually named as the chief of the devas, in contradistinction to the Brâhma or incorporeal angels, in the early Buddhist writings, and he is also placed quite apart from the Nâga gods.

They probably belonged to a much earlier immigration than that of the Vaidehas, as they kept themselves as a race quite apart from the Brahmins; though there were many Brahmins living in their country,' they do not seem to have mixed with them as the Videhas did with their Brahmin neighbours, or in any way to have acknowledged their authority. The Buddha, in the Brahmanadhammika Sutta,2 criticised the Brahmins very freely, speaking as a complete outsider, and giving an account of their history very similar to that I have now attempted to prove; there is no trace in any of the stories of his life of his having been brought up among ritualistic Brahmins, though he must have studied their philosophy very deeply, as well as the solutions proposed, on the moral and religious questions that were agitating the thoughtful minds of the country, by the numerous Brahmin teachers, who, with their disciples, are mentioned as having been scattered through Kosala and Magadha.

The Sakkos seem to have lived in a sort of proud isolation, regarding themselves as something very much superior to all about them, and did not join themselves with other tribes except the Koliyans, or enter the Vajjian confederacy.3 They were apparently looked upon by their neighbours as decayed nobility, with whom alliances were to be sought on account of the greatness of their ancestors. I do not

1 See long list of wealthy Brahmins living in the Sakya country in the Vâsettha Sutta, Sacred Books of the East, vol x.; Sutta Nipata, p. 108.

2 Sutta Nipata, pp. 47-52, sections 19-24.

3 They are not mentioned among the Vajjians in the Kalpa Sutra, where the Vajjian tribes are said to be nine Licchavis and nine Mallikis (Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxii. p. 266).

2

3

see how the story of the marriage of Vâsabha, Mahânâmo's daughter, with Prasenajit, can be otherwise explained. It was evidently exceedingly disliked by the Sakkos, though they were afraid to refuse, and the subsequent contempt shown by them shown by them to Vidadabha or Virudhaka, her son, led to their destruction by him when he came to the throne. The Buddha himself was obliged to admit that they deserved all they got. The other Aryan colony in the Vajjian country was that of the Jñâtrikas or Nâtikas, known as the Videhas or Vaidehas, the latter name probably meaning the foreigners, who were received into the Vajjian confederacy as one of the Licchavi tribes. They appear to have been the descendants of Mathava, the Videha, and his followers, who is said in the Satapatha Brâhmaņa to have civilized the country east of the Sudanira or Gunduk with the help of his family priest, Gotama Râhûgama, and the sacred fire (Agni Vaisvânara) of the Aryans. They came into the country when the ritualistic system was fully developed, and always, as is shown by the relations between them and the Brahmins in the Upanishads, and between the Brahmins and the Jains, remained subject to Brahmin influence. This is further shown by the strange story of the birth of Vardhamâna, afterwards the Mahavîra, the Jain, who was the son of Siddharta, a Videhan chief, but is represented as the son of a Brahmin.5 They joined cordially with their neighbours, and became very powerful in the union. They apparently did not object

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1 Faüsboll, Jâtaka, vol. iv. Introduction to Bhaddasala Jâtaka, passim. I must say I do not believe that Vâsabha was, as the story makes out, illegitimate. If she had been, Vidadabha would not, when the discovery was made, have succeeded to the throne. The story of the illegitimacy is evidently introduced to show the influence of the Buddha, who advised the king to acknowledge his son. 2 Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxii. Introduction.

3 Or, like the name Vaikarna, meaning of two races, it may mean the people of two countries, and may imply an alliance between the immigrant Aryans and the aboriginal inhabitants. The account of Vaisâli, given in the Dulva, quoted in Rockhill's Life of Buddha, p. 62, seems to favour the latter view. The people living in the three districts of the town could intermarry, but the people of the first district could marry only in their own district, those of the second in the first and second, and those of the third in all three.

Satapatha Brahmana, Sacred Books of the East, vol. xii. p. 105. 5 Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxii.; Kalpa Sutra, pp. 218-229.

to marriages with other tribes, as the Sakkos did, and it is probably for this reason they are said by Manu1 to have lost their caste. The marriage of Bimbisâro with Chellanâ, Vardhamâna's first cousin, seems to have been approved by her parents. But early Buddhist history, besides giving us information as to the land of the Kosalas and Videhas, throws great light on the early history of Magadha. The rule of the Nâga race seems to have been thoroughly consolidated in that kingdom, for Sesunâga, the first king who retired from Benares, and came to Rajagriha in Magadha, was the great-great-grandfather of Bimbisâro, and judging from the great prominence given to the Snake gods in all early Buddhist writing and sculptures, Brahmin influence seems to have been far less strong than in the neighbouring country of Kosala Videha, where the Brahmins seem to have found a more congenial home among the easy-going Kolarian tribes than among the sterner Dravidians. The protection of so powerful a monarch as Bimbisâro seems to have been one of the chief causes of the success of the religious revolution caused by the Buddha's teaching. Bimbisâro seems after a little while to have somewhat relaxed his zeal for these doctrines, and to have inclined to his relation, Mahavira, who lived for some years in Rajagriha, apparently while the Buddha was absent at Sravasti, Prasenajit's capital, and Bimbisâro's son, Ajàtasattu, first favoured the Jains and Buddhist heretics under Devadatta, but afterwards extended his protection to the Buddha and his disciples, who from henceforth seem to have been protected by the successive kings of Magadha, and from their monastery of Nalanda, near the capital, to have gone forth to convert India.

Everything was favourable to their progress, the public mind was everywhere stirred by anxiety on religious questions. The one question every one was anxious to solve was, where are we going in the future, and what will be our future fate after death? Every one accepted the immortality

1 Manu, x 17.

of the soul as an axiom, and also believed that men must be reborn after death. How to escape from rebirth in a lower state, or to reach a higher stage of existence in the next world, was the problem. The Brahmins prescribed sacrifices to save the souls of ancestors, and both Brahmin, Jain, and other ascetics said that by penances and austerities men could raise themselves to a level with the gods, and be freed from the danger of rebirth in a lower state. The Buddha, on the other hand, in a spirit of stern common sense, which must have been very attractive to the practical minds of his Dravidian hearers, said: The only way for a man to release himself from the chain of existence with its

fatal consequences is by his own efforts. He, and he alone, can subdue the desires which are the causes of changes of existence, and transform himself from a sinful to a sinless being, and when once that end is attained and his nature is absolutely purified and denuded of all desire for changes, the law of rebirth and compensation in a future life for evil deeds and mistakes in the past ceases to affect him. This manly creed evidently gained largely increasing numbers of followers, and its progress was watched no doubt carefully by the politicians. They finally in the time of Asoka, found Buddhism so popular as to make it a wise political step to proclaim it as the state religion of the vast Mauriyan empire. That empire, as I have endeavoured to show, had been built up by the gradual assimilation of the different people inhabiting the country, by using the best of the national laws and customs of the component races to perfect the methods of government, and by adapting such laws and customs to gradually increasing areas.

ART. IX.-The Customs of the Ossetes, and the Light they throw on the Evolution of Law. Compiled from Professor Maxim Kovalefsky's Russian Work on "Contemporary Custom and Ancient Law," and translated with Notes, by E. DELMAR MORGAN, M.R.A.S.

"1

THE following paper, of which a part only was read before the Asiatic Society on March 19th, is founded on a book published in Russian by Prof. Maxim Kovalefsky. In it the author gives the results of his investigations into the manners and customs of the Ossetes, with special reference to the light thrown by them on the evolution of law. The late Sir Henry Maine, who may be justly regarded as our authority on ancient law and early customs, has well said in a passage quoted by Prof. Kovalefsky on his title-page, "In order to understand the most ancient condition of society all distances must be reduced, and we must look on mankind, so to speak, at the wrong end of the historical telescope.' But this would be impossible in most parts where the waves of invading hosts and migrating nationalities have effaced almost every trace of early customs, and the historian may look in vain for materials to assist him in his inquiry. Fortunately there are tracts of the earth's surface removed beyond the influence of the destructive power of mankind, where primitive customs and beliefs have been handed down from father to son in almost unbroken continuity. Among these tracts are the higher valleys of mountain chains where the inhabitants of the plains have found safety in their struggles for self-preservation. In the highlands of the Caucasus, as in other mountainous regions, remnants of Aryan tribes have found it possible to subsist, though not in large numbers, preserving their independence and per

1 Dissertations on Early Law and Custom, but I have not found the passage in this work.