battle-field of Sobráon, he halted his victorious standards.1 He had resolved to march to the Ganges; but his troops were worn out by the heats of the Punjab summer, and their spirits broken by the hurricanes of the south-west monsoon. The native tribes had already risen in his rear, and the Conqueror of the World was forced to turn back before he had crossed even the frontier Province of India. The Sutlej, the eastern Districts of the Punjab, and the mighty Jumna, still lay between him and the Ganges. A single defeat might have been fatal to his army; if the battle on the Jhelum had gone against him, not a Greek would probably have reached the Afghán side of the passes. Yielding at length to the clamour of his men, he led them back to the Jhelum. He there embarked Sooo of his troops in boats previously prepared, and floated them down the river; the remainder marched in two divisions along the banks. in Sind, 325 B.C. The country was hostile, and the Greeks held only the land Alexander on which they encamped. At Múltán, then as now the capital of the Southern Punjab, he had to fight a pitched battle with the Malli, and was severely wounded in taking the city. His enraged troops put every soul within it to the sword. Farther down, near the confluence of the five rivers of the Punjab, he made a long halt, built a town,-Alexandria, the modern Uchh, and received the submission of the neighbouring States. A Greek garrison and Satrap, which he here left behind, laid the foundation of a lasting influence. Having constructed a new fleet, suitable for the greater rivers on which he was now to embark, he proceeded southwards through Sind, and followed the course of the Indus until he reached the ocean. In the apex of the delta, he founded or refounded a city-Patala-which survives to this day as Haidarábád, the capital of Sind. At the mouth of the Indus, Alexander beheld for the first time the majestic phenomenon of the tides. One part of his army he shipped off under the com 1 The change in the course of the Sutlej has altered the old position of that river to the Beas at this point. The best small map of Alexander's route is No. v. in General Cunningham's Anc. Geog. of India, p. 104, ed. 1871; 64 miles to the inch. ? For its interesting appearances in ancient history, see General Cunningham's Anc. Geog. of India, pp. 279-287, under Patala or Nirankot. It appears variously as Pattala, Pattalene, Pitasila, etc. It was formerly identified with Tatta (Thatha), near to where the western arm of the Indus bifurcates. See also M'Crindle's Com. and Nav. of Erythræan Sea, p. 156. (Trübner, 1879.) An excellent map of Alexander's campaign in Sind is given at p. 248 of Cunningham's Anc. Geog. of India. Leaves Results of 327-325 B. C. mand of Nearchus to coast along the Persian Gulf; the other he himself led through Southern Baluchistán and Persia to Susa, where, after terrible losses from want of water and famine on the march, he arrived in 325 B.C. During his two years' campaign in the Punjab and Sind, Greek ex- Alexander captured no Province, but he made alliances, pedition, founded cities, and planted Greek garrisons. He had transferred much territory to chiefs and confederations devoted to his cause; every petty court had its Greek faction; and the detachments which he left behind at various positions from the Afghán frontier to the Beas, and from near the base of the Himalayas to the Sind delta, were visible pledges of his return. At Taxila (DERI-SHAHAN) and Nikaia (MONG) in the Northern Punjab; at Alexandria (UCHн) in the Southern Punjab; at Patala (HAIDARABAD) in Sind; and at other points along his route, he established military settlements of Greeks or allies. A body of his troops remained in Bactria; and in the partition of the Empire after Alexander's Seleukos, death in 323 B.C., Bactria and India eventually fell to Seleukos 323-312 Nikator, the founder of the Syrian monarchy. B.C. Chandra 326 B.C.; Meanwhile, a new power had arisen in India. Among the Indian adventurers who thronged Alexander's camp in the Punjab, each with his plot for winning a kingdom or crushing a rival, Chandra Gupta, an exile from the Gangetic valley, seems to have played a somewhat ignominious part. He tried to tempt the wearied Greeks on the banks of the Beas with schemes of conquest in the rich south-eastern Provinces; but having personally offended their leader, he had to fly the camp (326 B.C.). In the confused years which followed, he managed, with the aid of plundering hordes, to found a kingdom on the ruins of the Nanda dynasty in Magadha, or Behar 316 B.C.; (316 B.C.).1 He seized the capital, Pataliputra, the modern Patná; established himself firmly in the Gangetic valley, and compelled the north-western principalities, Greeks and natives alike, to acknowledge his suzerainty. While, therefore, Seleukos was winning his way to the Syrian monarchy during the eleven years which followed Alexander's death, Chandra Gupta was building up an empire in Northern India. Seleukos reigned in Syria from 312 to 280 B.C.; Chandra Gupta in the Gangetic valley from 316 to 292 B.C. In 312 1 Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, i. 7. 312 B.C. 2 For the dynasty of Chandra Gupta, see Numismata Orientalia (Ceylon fasciculus), pp. 41-50. B.C., the power of both had been consolidated, and the two new sovereignties were soon brought face to face. in India, 312-306 About that year, Seleukos, having recovered Babylon, pro- Seleukos ceeded to re-establish his authority in Bactria and the Punjab. In the Punjab, he found the Greek influence decayed. Alex- B.C. ander had left a mixed force of Greeks and Indians at Taxila. But no sooner had he departed from India, than the Indians rose and slew the Greek governor; the Macedonians next massacred the Indians; a new governor, sent by Alexander, murdered the friendly Punjab prince, Porus; and was himself driven out of India, by the advance of Chandra Gupta from the Gangetic valley. Seleukos, after a war with Chandra Gupta, determined to ally himself with the new power in India rather than to oppose it. In return for 500 elephants, he ceded the Greek settlements in the Punjab and the Kábul valley; gave his daughter to Chandra Gupta in marriage; and stationed an ambassador, Megasthenes, at the Gangetic court (306-298 306-298 B.C.). Chandra Gupta became familiar to the Greeks as Sandrokottos, King of the Prasii; his capital, Pataliputra,1 or Patná, was rendered into Palibothra. On the other hand, the Greeks and kings of Grecian dynasties appear in the rockinscriptions, under Indian forms.2 B. C. Megasthenes has left a life-like picture of the Indian people. The India of MegasNotwithstanding some striking errors, the observations which thenes, he jotted down at Patná, three hundred years before Christ, 300 B.C. give as accurate an account of the social organization in the Gangetic valley as any which existed when the Bengal Asiatic Society commenced its labours at the end of the last century (1785). Up to the time of Megasthenes, the Greek idea of India was a very vague one. Their historians spoke of two classes of Indians,-certain mountainous tribes who dwelt in Northern Afghánistán under the Caucasus or Hindu Kush, and a maritime race living on the coast of Baluchistán. Of the India of modern geography lying beyond the Indus, they practically knew nothing. It was this India to the east of the Indus which Megasthenes opened up to the western world. 1 The modern Patná, or Pattana, means simply the city.' For its identification with Pataliputrapura by means of Mr. Ravenshaw's final discoveries, see General Cunningham's Anc. Geog. of India, p. 452 et seq. 2 The Greeks as Yonas (Yavanas), from the 'Iάoves or Ionians. In the Inscriptions of Asoka, five Greek princes appear: Antiochos (of Syria); Ptolemy (Philadelphos of Egypt); Antigonos (Gonatos of Macedon); Magas (of Kyrene); Alexander (II. of Epirus).-Weber, Hist. Ind. Lit., pp. 179, 252. But see also Wilson, Journ. Roy. As. Soc., vol. xii. (1850), and Cunningham's Corpus Inscrip. Indic., pp. 125, 126. Kalanos man. He describes the classification of the people, dividing them, however, into seven castes instead of four,1-namely, philosophers, husbandmen, shepherds, artisans, soldiers, inspectors, and the counsellors of the king. The philosophers were the Bráhmans, and the prescribed stages of their life are indicated. Megasthenes draws a distinction between the Brahmans (Bpaxuâves) and the Sarmanai (apμáva), from which some scholars infer that the Buddhist Sramanas or monks were a recognised order fifty years before the Council of Asoka. But the Sarmanai also include Bráhmans in the first and third stages of their life as students and forest recluses.2 The inspectors, or sixth class of Megasthenes, have been identified with the Buddhist supervisors of morals, afterwards referred to in the sixth edict of Asoka. Arrian's name for them, TíσкоTо, is the Greek word which has become our modern bishop or overseer of souls. The Brahmans deeply impressed Alexander by their learning the Bráh- and austerities. One of them, Kalanos by name, was tempted, notwithstanding the reproaches of his brethren, to enter the service of the conqueror. But falling sick in Persia, Kalanos determined to die like a Bráhman, although he had not consistently lived as one. Alexander, on hearing of his philosopher's resolve to put an end to his life, vainly tried to dissuade him ; then loaded him with jewels; and directed that he should be attended with all honours to the last scene. Distributing the costly gifts of his master as he advanced, wearing a garland of flowers, and singing his native Indian hymns, the Brahman mounted a funeral pyre, and serenely perished in the flames. 323 B.C. Indian society, 300 B.C. Petty kingdoms. The Greek ambassador observed with admiration the absence of slavery in India, the chastity of the women, and the courage of the men. In valour they excelled all other Asiatics; they required no locks to their doors; above all, no Indian was ever known to tell a lie. Sober and industrious, good farmers, and skilful artisans, they scarcely ever had recourse to a lawsuit, and lived peaceably under their native chiefs. The kingly government is portrayed almost as described in Manu, with its hereditary castes of councillors and soldiers. Megasthenes mentions that India was divided into 118 kingdoms; some 1 Ancient India as described by Megasthenes and Arrian, being fragments of the Indika, by J. W. M'Crindle, M.A., p. 40, ed. 1877. 2 Brahmachárins and Vánaprasthas (λóßio). Weber very properly declines to identify the Zapuavas exclusively with the Buddhist Sramanas. Hist. Ind. Lit., p. 28, ed. 1878. 3 The popos (Deodorus, Strabo), iwícxoxo (Arrian). of which, such as that of the Prasii under Chandra Gupta, exercised suzerain powers. The village system is well described, each little rural unit seeming to the Greek an independent republic. Megasthenes remarked the exemption of the husbandmen (Vaisyas) from war and public services; and enumerates the dyes, fibres, fabrics, and products (animal, vegetable, and mineral) of India. Husbandry depended on the periodical rains; and forecasts of the weather, with a view to 'make adequate provision against a coming deficiency,' formed a special duty of the Bráhmans. The philosopher who errs in his predictions observes silence for the rest of his life.' Greek treaty, Before the year 300 B.C., two powerful monarchies had thus Indobegun to act upon the Bráhmanism of Northern India, from the east and from the west. On the east, in the Gangetic 256 B.C. valley, Chandra Gupta (316-292 B.C.) firmly consolidated the dynasty which during the next century produced Asoka (264-223 B.C.), established Buddhism throughout India, and spread its doctrines from Afghánistán to China, and from Central Asia to Ceylon. On the west, the heritage of Seleukos (312-280 B.C.) diffused Greek influences, and sent forth GrecoBactrian expeditions to the Punjab. Antiochos Theos (grandson of Seleukos Nikator) and Asoka (grandson of Chandra Gupta), who ruled these probably conterminous monarchies, made a treaty with each other, 256 B.C. In the next century, Eukratides, King of Bactria, conquered as far as Alexander's royal city of Patala, the modern Haidarábád in the Sind Delta; and sent expeditions into Cutch and Guzerat, 181-161 B.C. India, Menander advanced furthest into North-Western India, Grecks in and his coins are found from Kábul, near which he pro- 181-161 bably had his capital, as far as Muttra on the Jumna. The B.C. Buddhist successors of Chandra Gupta profoundly modified the religion of Northern India from the east; the empire of Seleukos, with its Bactrian and later offshoots, deeply influenced the science and art of Hindustán from the west. Indian art. We have already seen how much Bráhman astronomy owed Greek into the Greeks (p. 114); and what the Buddhists were to the fluence on architecture of Northern India, that the Greeks were to its sculpture. Greek faces and profiles constantly occur in ancient Buddhist statuary. They enrich almost all the larger museums in India, and examples may be seen at South Kensington. The purest specimens have been found in the Punjab, where the Greeks settled in greatest force. In the Lahore collection I saw, among other beautiful pieces, an exquisite little figure of an old blind man feeling his way with a staff. |