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traversed the southern coast of the peninsula of

India, reducing, in its progress, the maritime cities, and establishing colonies of Egyptians in various places. After reaching the mouths of the Ganges, the conqueror erected triumphal pillars, inscribed with his name and a recital of his victories. This story seems to border on the fabulous; but it is, to a certain degree, corroborated by curious facts. In a Persian history, quoted by Ferishta, it is related that the Afghans are of the race of the Egyptians, who were ruled by Pharaoh. To this remark may be added another of Sir William Jones, that the mountaineers of Bengal and Behar can hardly be distinguished, in some of their features, from the modern Abyssinians. Sesostris is said to be known as a conqueror, in India, by the name of Sacya.

Whatever conquests were made by Sesostris in India, they do not appear to have been permanent. The Persians, under Darius Hystaspes, seem to have been more successful in establishing their power in that country. Darius, having subdued all the territories lying between the Caspian Sea and the River Oxus, next turned his arms toward India. With a view to obtain information respecting this country, he despatched Scylax, a Greek or Carian officer in his service, on an exploring expedition, with a squadron of vessels. This commander was instructed to sail down the River Indus till he reached the ocean. Such an enterprise had never before been undertaken by a Persian monarch, and the regions watered by the Indus were almost entirely unknown to the western nations. Scylax accomplished his undertaking in the most satisfactory manner. He sailed down the Indus to the ocean, coasted along the Arabian shore, and entered the Red Sea at the Straits of Babelmandel. Thirty months after he left the town of Caspatyra, on the Indus, he arrived at Suez, the port from which Necho had formerly sent the Phoenicians to circumnavigate Africa. From this place, Scylax proceeded to Susa, where he gave Darius a complete account of his voyage. His description of the populousness, fertility, and high cultivation of the territory along the banks of the Indus made the Persian king impatient to become the master of so rich a country. He immediately invaded India with a strong army, and established his authority in those regions traversed by the great river which Scylax had navigated. It does not appear that the Persian dominion extended so far as Central India. Herodotus, from whom we have received this account, furnishes no particulars of the conquest, except that India made the twentieth province of the Persian empire, and that the annual revenue which it furnished to the royal treasury was three hundred and sixty talents of gold - an amount equivalent to about two million five hundred thousand dollars.

Notwithstanding this conquest, it does not appear that any general knowledge of India was diffused throughout the western nations. The Persians were little interested in the study of geography. The Greeks were the only people who, at that time, paid any attention to the liberal sciences; and, as they regarded all nations but themselves in the light of barbarians, they were not disposed to attach any great importance to the discoveries of Scylax. In fact, that navigator had related so many wonderful things in the

A NEW era in the history of India begins with the conquests of Alexander the Great. This monarch, having overrun the Persian empire, and even carried his arms northward as far as Bactria, determined to follow up his career of success by the invasion of India. An excess of vanity and folly prompted him to this undertaking; for the project was quite useless in itself, as well as very dangerous. He had read, in the ancient fables of Greece, that Bacchus and Hercules, both sons of Jupiter, had attempted the same, or a similar, exploit. He was resolved not to be surpassed by them, and he had many flatterers | about him who applauded this wild and chimerical design. In the year 328 B. C., or about one hundred and sixty years after the reign of Darius Hystaspes, he marched from Bactria across the great mountain chain of the Hindoo Koosh, which bounds Hindostan on the north. His route was the same as that which has been followed by the invaders of India in later times, among whom were Timour and Nadir Shah. Having crossed the mountains, he encamped on the site of the present city of Candahar, which place is called by the ancient geographers Alexandria Paropamisana.

On his first entrance into India, the petty princes of the country came to meet him and make their submission. They declared that he was the third son of Jupiter who had visited their country; that they knew Bacchus and Hercules only by fame, but now they had the happiness to see a son of Jupiter face to face. Such is the story related by the Greek writers, who were not very scrupulous in embellishing the facts of their narratives. In his progress southward, Alexander began to experience the extraordinary difficulties to which an invading army is exposed by the natural strength of the country as well as its artificial fortifications. He first encountered the city of Massaga, which was defended by a garrison of thirty thousand men. Nature and art seemed to have vied with each other in rendering this place impregnable. greater part of it was surrounded by a very deep and rapid river with steep banks, and on the land side were high and craggy rocks, at the foot of which were caves and deep clefts, which offered a much more formidable defence than any artificial trenches. Whilst Alexander was going round the city to view the fortifications, he was shot by an arrow in the calf of his leg. When he saw the blood flowing, he exclaimed, "Every one tells me I am the son of Jupiter, but my wound makes me sensible that I am a man. The soldiers by immense labor filled up the chasms in the rocks with trunks of trees and great stones. They then brought forward their battering-rams and balistæ. These strange engines so terrified the

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Hindoos that they immediately surrendered the city.

The next powerful obstacle encountered by the Macedonians was a rock called Aornos, which means a place so high that a bird cannot fly over it. All the inhabitants of a city in the neighborhood had fled to this place on the approach of the invaders. It was very steep on every side, and its base was bordered by a river and deep morass. It was necessary to capture this place, that the army might not leave so strong a post of the enemy in its rear. There was a thick forest in the neighborhood, and Alexander gave orders to fell the trees for the purpose of filling up the morass. This was done: the king threw in the first trunk; the soldiers, seeing this, shouted for joy, and, every one laboring with incredible diligence, the work was finished in a week. The attack then began. Alexander led the way in climbing up the rock. This was a very hazardous movement. Many of the soldiers slipped down the steep declivity, and were drowned in the river. The Hindoos defended themselves by rolling great stones down upon the assailants; and so many of the Macedonians were killed, that Alexander found it necessary to sound a retreat. After taking some repose, he renewed the attack by ordering the military towers and engines to be brought forward. The Hindoos laughed at this mode of warfare, and made sport of their enemies for two days and nights, beating their drums and cymbals till the rock and all the neighborhood echoed with the sound. On the third night, they were not heard, and the Macedonians were surprised to see every part of the rock illuminated with torches. It appeared now that the Hindoos were retreating under cover of the night, and the whole army, by Alexander's order, immediately shouted aloud. This so terrified the fugitives, that great numbers of them, imagining the enemy were close in pursuit, leaped from the top of the rock, and were dashed to pieces. The Macedonians immediately took possession of the place.

Having subdued the natives and tribes on the northwest bank of the Indus, Alexander crossed that river at Taxila, now called Attock, which is the only place in that quarter where the stream is so gentle that a floating bridge can be thrown over it. From this point he took the route leading to the Ganges and the rich and populous regions of the south. He found this part of the country under the dominion of a great king, or emperor, named Porus. Alexander imagined that this monarch, astonished and terrified by the Macedonian conquests, would immediately submit to him. He therefore sent a message to Porus as if to a vassal, commanding him to pay tribute and meet him on his march. The Hindoo sovereign replied that he would meet him, but it should be sword in hand. Alexander, exasperated at this reply, hastened his march, and arrived at the River Hydaspes, one of the head streams of the Indus, and now called the Jhelum. He found Porus with his army encamped on the opposite bank, ready to dispute his passage.

The Hindoo army was strengthened in front by a line of eighty-five elephants and three hundred war chariots. Porus himself was of a gigantic stature, and rode an elephant of enormous size. The Macedonians dreaded not only the enemy, but the river which they were obliged to pass. It was half a mile wide, and so deep as to be nowhere fordable. Notwithstanding its great breadth, its waters dashed with

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violence on the rocks, which impeded its course, and rendered all attempts to cross both difficult and dangerous. The appearance of the enemy on the opposite side was terrible in the extreme. The bank of the river was covered with men, horses, and elephants. Those hideous animals stood firm, like so many towers, and the Hindoos caused them to utter loud cries, that they might fill the Macedonians with terror. Alexander was in great perplexity; and finding, after repeated attempts, that he could not pass the river by force of arms, he determined upon a stratagem. He ordered his cavalry to make a feint of crossing the stream in the night, and to raise a shout, as if they were about to rush into the water. Porus, hearing the noise, commanded a body of elephants to hasten to the spot; but they met no enemy. This was repeated several times, till the Hindoos, becoming used to these false alarms, took no further notice of them.

Having thus diverted the attention of his adversary from his designed movement, Alexander suddenly pushed a body of troops into the river, and gained possession of a small island in the middle of the stream. While endeavoring to force a passage across from this spot, a furious storm arose, accompanied with tremendous thunder and lightning. Alexander, instead of being terrified, was only encouraged by this accident, looking upon it as highly favorable to his design. He immediately gave orders for the embarkation of his whole army, and crossed the stream himself in the first boat. It is reported that, on this occasion, he cried out, "O Athenians! could you believe that I would expose myself to such dangers to merit your applause ? " The Macedonian army, having effected the passage of the river, immediately fell upon the enemy with great fury. They gained a complete victory, the Hindoos losing above twenty thousand men, including the two sons of Porus. The loss of the Macedonians is stated to have been less than three hundred. Porus himself was taken prisoner, and carried into the presence of Alexander, who asked him how he desired to be treated. " Like a king," was the reply. "Do you ask for nothing more?" said Alexander. "No," returned Porus; "all things are included in that single word." The Macedonian conqueror was struck with this greatness of soul, which seemed heightened by the distress of the Hindoo monarch. He restored him to his throne, annexed new provinces to his dominions, and bestowed on him the greatest honors and his personal friendship.

The conquerors had now reached that rich and populous territory called the Punjaub, or the Country of the Five Rivers. At every step of their progress, objects no less striking than new attracted their attention. The magnitude of the rivers filled them with surprise. No country which they had ever visited was so populous and well cultivated, or abounded with so many valuable productions of nature and art. Wherever he directed his march, Alexander was allured onward by magnificent descriptions of the regions yet unvisited. He was informed that the Indus was an insignificant stream compared to the Ganges, and the territories through which he had passed far inferior in every respect to the regions of the south. These accounts stimulated his desire of conquest to the highest pitch, and he urged his soldiers to push on their march toward that quarter, where wealth, fame, and dominion awaited them.

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dangers and fatigues which they had already passed through had sobered their enthusiasm, while new dangers and fatigues of an extraordinary character still lay in their way. They were told that, after passing the River Hyphasis, they must march eleven days through a desert before they reached the great River Ganges; that beyond this mighty stream dwelt the Gangaridæ and the Prasii, whose king was preparing to oppose their progress with an army of two hundred and twenty thousand men and three thousand elephants. This intelligence spread a panic throughout the army, and raised a general murmur against the design of marching farther. The Macedonians were now nearly worn out with hard service. They had grown gray in the camp and the battle-field, and were incessantly directing their eyes and their wishes toward their native land. For the last two months, it had rained almost without ceasing, and, notwithstanding the command of their king, they declared that they would march no farther.

Alexander found himself compelled to yield to the wishes of his men. He gave orders to return, leaving a few bodies of troops to retain possession of the territories which he had conquered. His campaign in India had occupied three or four months, and might have been more successful had it not been undertaken at the wrong season of the year. The Greeks were totally ignorant of the periodical rains of India, and Alexander began his march into that country just at the commencement of the rainy season. His conquests were not permanent. The soldiers whom he left behind indulged in every sort of debauchery, and dissensions soon broke out among their commanders. The death of Alexander, which took place shortly after, hastened the downfall of the Macedonian empire in Hindostan.

We are unable to state the precise nature of the Hindoo political system at this period, and it is uncertain whether the various kings and princes of the country were subject to any supreme head, or whether they were independent sovereigns. A prince called by the Greeks Sandracottus reigned here at the time of the Macedonian conquest. The western princes, by his assistance, expelled the invaders from their territories. Seleucus, one of the successors of Alexander, attempted with a large force to reconquer the country, but with very little success. The war was concluded by a treaty, in pursuance of which Seleucus gave his daughter in marriage to Sandracottus, and the latter, in return, agreed to furnish Seleucus annually with fifty elephants. This friendly intercourse was kept up for some time; but, after the death of Seleucus, the Greeks appear to have been finally expelled from Hindostan. No particulars of this event, however, have been transmitted to us by the ancient historians.

One of the Hindoo kingdoms at this period was called Magadha, and was situated in the same quarter with the modern province of Behar. Its capital was Palibothra, now Patna. About the time of Alexander, this kingdom was ruled by a sovereign named Mahapadma Nanda. He was powerful and ambitious, but greedy and cruel. By these vices, as well as by his inferiority of birth, he seems to have provoked the hostility of the Brahmins. By one wife he had eight sons, who, with their father, were called the nine

the instrument of the rebellious spirit of the Brahmins, who put to death Nanda and his eight other sons, and placed Chandra Gupta on the throne. The Brahmins, in this revolution, were aided by Pawatswara, a prince in the north of India, to whom they promised an accession of territory as the reward of his alliance. The execution of this treaty was evaded by the assassination of the prince. His son Malayaketu led a mingled host against Magadha, to avenge his father's death. Among his troops we find the Garanas, the Lakas, and the Kambojas, or people of Arachosia. It has been supposed that Chandra Gupta is the same with Sandracottus.

Damaichus, a Greek, who was sent as an ambassador by Seleucus into India, wrote an account of his embassy, some fragments of which have been preserved. This writer and the rest of his countrymen who visited India, appear to have had no scruple in relating the most marvellous tales to amuse and astonish the credulous Greeks. They stated that men were found in this country with ears so large as to cover the whole body; others with one eye, no mouth nor nose, and with long feet, having the toes turning backward; others with heads shaped like a wedge; and others of pygmy size, only three spans in height. These marvellous accounts doubtless originated in the grotesque symbolical representations sculptured on the walls and idols of the Hindoo pagodas, and which the travellers contemplated with astonishment. These repre- | sentations were mistaken, in that remote region of the world, for actual copies of living things.

CHAPTER CCL.

204 B. C. to A. D. 1000.

Reign of Vicramaditya - Embassy of Porus to Augustus Strabo's Account of Musican The Temple of Taxila - Usurpations of the Brahmin - Rise of Buddhism - The Kingdom of Kinoge - Maldeo - Expulsion of the Buddhists.

FROM the death of Chandra Gupta there is a blank in the history of India, continuing for more than two hundred years. Of this interval we know nothing, except what is related by the Greek writers respecting Sophagesenus, one of the Hindoo sovereigns, who is said to have made a treaty with Antiochus the Great, king of Syria, 204 B. C. Of this treaty we only know that the Hindoo paid the Syrian king a tribute of elephants. About half a century before the Christian era, we find mention of Vicramaditya, or Bickermajit, who is called the sovereign of all India. He ruled with such extraordinary success, that his reign forms an important era in history. He is described as unequalled by any former king in the science of jurisprudence and legislation, as well as in fortitude, justice, and wisdom. He is said to have travelled as a mendicant over a great part of the East, in order to acquire a knowledge of the arts, learning, and policy of foreign nations, that he might transplant them into his own empire. The Hindoo poets and historians are full of their praises of this just and great man. The poets, wishing to convey an adequate idea of his inflex

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net dared not, without his permission, exert its power upon iron, nor amber upon bits of straw of the field. The historians relate that such were his temperance and contempt of luxury, that he slept upon a mat, and reduced the furniture of his apartment to an earthen pot of water. He was also a sedulous upholder of the influence of the Brahmins, and a munificent patron of learning. The poet and philosopher Calidasa was particularly favored by him. This individual was the chief of fourteen learned Brahmins whom Vicramaditya invited to his court from various parts of Hindostan, and who were denominated the fourteen jewels of his crown. Toward the close of his reign, Vicramaditya became involved in war with the king of Persia, and was forced to submit to the authority of that monarch. The historian of the age of Augustus informs us, that in the reign of that emperor, Porus, a Hindoo sovereign, sent an embassy to the Roman emperor, who was then in Syria. This embassy comprised a most splendid retinue, bearing a present for Augustus of some of the rarest and most valuable productions of Hindostan. In the letters presented by the ambassadors, Porus made an ostentatious display of his great power, wealth, and magnificence. He informed Augustus that he ruled over six hundred tributary princes or rajahs. All the ambassadors, except three, died on the route. Their dress and manners excited the wonder of the subjects of Augustus. They were so thinly clothed in the light dress of their own country, that they appeared almost naked. They were highly perfumed, in the manner of the Hindoos, with aromatic unguents. Among the presents which they brought were several tigers, - an animal which the Romans had previously heard of, but had never seen, - birds of monstrous growth, and reptiles of a prodigious magnitude. In the train of the ambassadors was a venerable Brahmin, who was so flattered with the attention paid him by Augustus, that he followed him to Athens, where he burnt himself on a funeral pile before the whole population of that city.

The geographer Strabo, from whom we have this account, gives us a description of a part of Hindostan, which appears to have been faintly known to the Greeks and Romans of that day. He informs us that on the banks of the Indus was a kingdom, named Musican, the royal palace of which was splendid almost beyond belief. It stood on lofty columns of porphyry, richly gilded, round which, to the summit, were twined artificial vines of gold. Amid the branches of the vines appeared the figures of Indian birds, executed in jewelry of unrivalled brilliancy. The interior of the palace was one great blaze of magnificence, and abounded with whatever could gratify the sight or the hearing. In one apartment the visitor was soothed and delighted with the warblings of the softest music; in another was heard the quick and measured step of the dance; a third echoed with the richest strains of vocal song from siren lips, and a fourth resounded with the glee of bacchanalian revellers. The monarch himself, to judge from this description, seems to have placed his chief happiness in the enjoyment of a supine and voluptuous indolence. He was arrayed in a splendid dress of gold and purple, richly embroidered. He was constantly surrounded by a train of women, who spent their whole time in perfuming his tresses and adorning his person. When he condescended to appear in public, silver censers were carried before

burned in his honor, as if he had been a god. He lay in a golden palanquin, canopied with silken curtains fringed with pearls. His wives and female attendants followed in palanquins, adorned in the same manner. Wherever he went, either marching to war or on a hunting excursion, he was escorted by a numerous guard, and a large troop of officers and menials, who carried branches of trees, on which were perched the most beautiful singing birds. The remainder of the description of this monarch and his pageantry is of a similar character.

Another Greek writer describes the Temple of the Sun, at Taxila, in the northwest of India. The lofty walls of this temple were of red marble, interspersed with plates of burnished gold, with sharp points to imitate the solar rays. On the floor, in a kind of mosaic work of jewelry, was wrought the figure of the morning star, in precious stones of so brilliant a lustre that the work seemed to burn upon the pavement. In the same temple were two colossal statues of Alexander in gold, two of the vanquished Porus in brass, and one of Ajax in ivory. Gold and precious stones of every hue were expended in such profusion upon the ornaments of this temple, that the Greeks, who were unacquainted with the wealth of the Oriental countries, might well have been struck with amazement at the sight.

Another chasm occurs about this time in Indian history. Hardly any information is afforded by the Greek writers, and we learn little from the native historians, except that the empire fell into anarchy. As the imperial power declined, the rules of caste, on which the influence of the hereditary priesthood depended, were rendered more rigid and severe. The Brahmins arrogated to themselves the exclusive privilege of studying and expounding the sacred books, and as these were the source of all Hindoo learning, whether religious or scientific, the priesthood thus obtained a monopoly of knowledge. The Brahmins alone could exercise the medical art; for, sickness being considered as the punishment of transgression, to be remedied only by penances and religious ceremonies, they alone had the right to interpret the laws, to offer sacrifices, and to give counsel to the sovereign. In the midst of the anarchy caused by the decline of the imperial -authority, the great vassals of the crown assumed independence in their respective governments. This state of things continued for two or three centuries.

At a very early but uncertain period, the Brahmins were opposed by a reformer named Buddha, who rejected the Vedas, or sacred books, bloody sacrifices, and the distinction of castes. His followers, called Buddhists, must have been both numerous and powerful at a remote age, for a great number of the Hindoo rock temples are dedicated to him. From the writers of the second century, it is evident that in their day, the religion of Buddha, was very prevalent in India. In the Hindoo dramatic pieces of that time, the Buddhist observances are described with great accuracy, and the members of the sect are represented as in a flourishing condition, for they are not only tolerated, but publicly recognized.

The kingdom of Kinoge was founded about the middle of the fourth century, by a chieftain named Basdeo, who, after making himself master of Bengal and Behar, assumed imperial honors, and built the city of Kinoge, which gave name to the kingdom. It was during his reign that Bahram, the king of Persia, is said to 504

adjoining Kinoge, a wild elephant rushed from a thicket, and attacked every person he met. All fled before him except Bahram, who shot an arrow into his forehead with such effect, that he laid him dead on the spot. The fame of this exploit caused him to be carried to court, where he was recognized by a Hindoo nobleman, who had formerly lived in Persia. The king, being thus compelled to own his real character, was treated with the utmost magnificence while he remained at the court of Kinoge. He married the daughter of Basdeo, and returned after some time to Persia. Kinoge continued under the rule of Basdeo and his son for eighty years. The next sovereign who attracts any notice in history, is Maldeo, a man of obscure origin, who elevated himself to power, and conquered the city of Delhi from the reigning family. He soon after made himself master of the metropolis, which was at this time a city of immense size. We are told that it contained thirty thousand shops for the sale of the areca nut, which the Hindoos chew like tobacco, and that among its population were sixty thousand bands of musicians and singers, who paid a tax to government. Maldeo reigned about forty years; but he was unable to transmit the crown to his posterity. Every hereditary chief and petty governor assumed independent power in his own district, and the name of the great empire of Hindostan was lost, till it was restored, many centuries afterward, by the Mahometan conqueror.

During the period which separates the ancient his tory of India from the modern, and which is very barren in recorded facts, the country was divided into a number of petty independent states, in which the ruling princes or rajahs appear to have been completely under the influence of the Brahmins. The warrior caste was naturally viewed with great jealousy by them, and the institutions which the Brahmins forced upon these rivals were designed to check all martial spirit and tendencies. The result of this policy was, that Hindostan subsequently became the prey of foreign conquerors. It was during this period also, though it is impossible to fix the date accurately, that the Buddhists were expelled from Hindostan by the Brahmins. They sought shelter in Ceylon, in the mountains of the north, in the countries beyond the Ganges, in Tartary, and in China, where their religion had already been preached by missionaries. The Buddhists were not the only reformers who opposed the Brahmins: they were followed by another sect, called the Jains, who exerted themselves to expose the fraud and superstition of the Hindoo priesthood. A further account of Buddhism will be found in the history of Thibet.

quantities of plunder. At his death, A. D. 1028, he was in possession of a great part of Hindostan, with almost the whole of Persia. But in little more than a century, the empire of Ghizni was overthrown, in consequence of a great commotion among the tribes of Central Asia. These fierce hordes of barbarians made frequent inroads into the territories which constituted the empire, where they experienced no effectual resistance. Among these invaders were the Gaurs, or Gours, a valiant and formidable race of mountaineers, who dwelt in the western and central parts of the Hindoo Koosh, or Dark Mountains. They had never been subdued, even by the Persians, when in the height of their power. At length, they became so formidable, that in 1158 they dethroned the reigning sovereign of Ghizni, and thereby not only paved the way for an invasion of India, but for the elevation of a Mahometan to the throne of that country. In 1184, the Gaurs established themselves permanently in Hindostan, and, ten years later, founded an empire there, called the Patan empire. Their seat of government was first at Lahore, in the Punjaub, but it was subsequently transferred to Delhi. This was the first dynasty of Mahometan sovereigns in India.

In the thirteenth century, Hindostan was invaded by Zingis Khan, the Mongol conqueror. The Mahometan dominion in this country was at this time in the height of its power. A prince named Baber occupied the throne, and the historians of that age speak in high terms of the ability and justice of his administration. One of his most singular acts was a campaign against a forest. Gangs of robbers, called dacoits, were then, as now, very common in India. Their depredations were carried on almost to the very gates of the capital, there being a large forest on the south of the city, in which the robbers escaped pursuit. Baber sent an army of hatchet-men against it, and cut down the trees for an extent of a hundred miles, thereby at once dislodging the robbers, and bringing a large tract of land into cultivation.

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The invasion of Zingis caused much devastation in India, but this conqueror did not penetrate to any great distance southward, nor did he leave any permanent | traces of his dominion behind him at his retreat. About the close of the fourteenth century, we find a sovereign, named Alla, on the Patan throne. He was the first of the Mahometan emperors who carried his arms into Southern India, where his conquests were so productive that he returned with an amount of plunder estimated at the value of five hundred millions of dollars. To account for the existence of this prodigious mass of treasure, we must bear in mind that the priests and rajahs of that region had been accumulating wealth for two or three thousand years, and that the country then abounded in gold.

The next foreign invader of India was Tamerlane,* or Timour, the Mongolian chief, who pretended to be a descendent of Zingis Khan. After devastating many of the northern countries, he turned his arms toward the rich and fertile kingdoms of the south. In his march to the northern frontier of India, he took the route which had been followed by Alexander, and in

* As we have given a full history of the Mogul empire in India, we shall only notice it here so far as may be necessary

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