EPOCH IV.—BUDDHIST AGE.

THE ASCENDENCY OF MAGADHA. B.C. 320-A.D. 400.

CHAPTER I.

MAGADHA EMPIRE.

A NEW epoch in Indian history commences from the time of Chandragupta, the contemporary of Alexander the Great. As we have stated, Chandragupta was for some time in the camp of Alexander, and after the retreat of the Macedonian conqueror he ascended the throne of Magadha. He united the Punjab and the North-Western Provinces with Behar, conquered back from Seleucus many districts which had been subdued by the Greeks, and for the first time in the history of the country brought the whole of Northern India from the Indus to Behar under one vigorous rule. He concluded a peace with Seleucus, married his daughter, a Greek princess, and received in his court Megasthenes, the ambassador of that Grecian monarch.

Megasthenes remained in India for five years, from 317 to 312 B.C., and from the scattered remains of his writings we can form some idea of the greatness of Chandragupta's power and the system of his administration. Six classes of officers were appointed by the Emperor to

superintend the administration of towns. The first looked after industrial arts, for which India has been famous from the most ancient times. The second attended to the entertainment of foreigners, assigned lodgings to them, and kept watch over their modes of life. The third body registered births and deaths, with a view to levy taxes. The fourth superintended trade and commerce, inspected weights and measures, and regulated the sales of the products of each season. The fifth class exercised a similar supervision over the sales of manufactured articles; and the sixth class collected rates on the prices of all articles sold.

Officers were similarly appointed for the administration of rural tracts and villages. They supervised rivers, measured lands, inspected the sluices by which water was let out from the main canals to their branches for the purposes of irrigation, and rewarded huntsmen. They also collected taxes, inspected the occupations of woodcutters, carpenters, blacksmiths, and miners, and also constructed the public roads.

The military officers were divided into six divisions, corresponding to the divisions of the army. The first division was the fleet; the second consisted of bullock trains, transporting engines of war and commissariat supplies; the third was the infantry; the fourth was the cavalry; the fifth related to the chariots of war; and the sixth to elephants.

Arrian gives us a more detailed account of the Indian army. The foot-soldiers carried bows of the length of a man, and rested them on the ground, pressed them with the left foot, and discharged arrows little short of being three paces long, which nothing could resist, "neither shield nor breastplate, nor any stronger defence, if such there be." They also carried bucklers of undressed oxhide about the length of a man. Some carried javelins

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instead of bows, and swords not longer than three cubits, which they wielded with both hands to fetch down a lustier blow. Each horseman had two lances and a short buckler, and they managed their horses not with bits, but with circular pieces of leather fitted round the extremity of the horse's mouth.

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The laws of war were humane, and the peaceful dwellers of the land were never interfered with. Whereas among other nations," says Megasthenes, "it is usual in the contests of war to ravage the soil, and thus to reduce it to an uncultivated waste, among the Indians, on the contrary, by whom husbandmen are regarded as a class that is sacred and inviolable, the tillers of the soil, even if battle is raging in their neighbourhood, are undisturbed by any sense of danger; for the combatants on either side, in waging the conflict, make carnage of each other, but allow those engaged in husbandry to remain quite unmolested. Besides, they neither ravage an enemy's land with fire nor cut down its trees."

Of the general manners of the people, too, Megasthenes speaks with equal praise. "They live happily enough, being simple in their manners and frugal. They never drink wine except at sacrifices. Their beverage is a liquor composed from rice instead of barley, and their food is principally a rice pottage. The simplicity of their laws and their contracts is proved by the fact that they seldom go to law. They have no suits about pledges and deposits, nor do they require either seals or witnesses, but make their deposits and confide in each other. Their houses and property they generally leave unguarded. These things indicate that they possess sober sense. . . . Truth and virtue they hold alike in esteem."

Chandragupta died about 290 B.C., and was succeeded by his son Bindusára, who ruled for about thirty years, and of whom little is known. Bindusára's son, Asoka the

Great, was viceroy of Ujain and other places during his father's lifetime, and became celebrated as a warlike prince. He ascended the throne of Magadha and of Northern India about 260 B.C.

Inheriting the magnificent empire founded by his grandfather, Asoka added to it Bengal and Orissa, then known as Kalinga. This conquest brought the eastern seaboard of India under the close and immediate influence of the civilization and religion of Northern India. Other countries, not actually subjugated by Asoka, nevertheless owned the suzerainty of the great Emperor. Bactria,

Kabul and Kandahar, and the Dekhan as far as the Kistna river belong to this class, as we learn from Asoka's edicts.

But it was not the greatness of Asoka's empire and influence, but his zeal for religion, leading him to embrace the Buddhist faith, and the righteousness and benevolence of his administration, which have made his name known throughout India and all Asia, and justly entitle him to the epithet of "the Great". The conquest of the whole of Northern India by Chandragupta may be compared with the conquest of the best parts of Europe and Asia by Rome, as in both cases distant countries and nations were brought under the same powerful rule and the same civilizing influence and power. This unification of nations paved the way, in each case, for the spread of a new religion, and Asoka the Great's adoption of Buddhism as the state religion of India has often been compared with Constantine the Great's adoption of Christianity as the religion of the Roman Empire.

Asoka inscribed fourteen edicts on rocks in various parts of his vast dominions in the Pali language, which was then the spoken tongue of Northern India. Five such rocks have been discovered, one on the Indus, one on the Jumna, one in Gujrat, and two in Orissa. These

fourteen edicts, (1) prohibited the slaughter of animals ; (2) provided medical aid for men and animals ; (3) enjoined a quinquennial religious celebration; (4) made an announcement of religious grace; (5) appointed ministers of religion and missionaries; (6) appointed moral instructors to take cognizance of the conduct of the people; (7) proclaimed universal religious toleration ; (8) recommended pious enjoyments in preference to sensual amusements ; (9) expatiated on the merits of imparting religious instruction and moral advice; (10) extolled true heroism and glory founded in spreading true religion ;(11) declared the imparting of religious instruction as the best of all kinds of charity ; (12) proclaimed his desire to convert all unbelievers on the principles of universal toleration and moral persuasion ; (13) mentioned the conquest of Kalinga and the names of five Greek kings, his contemporaries, to whose kingdoms as well as to various parts of India he had sent Buddhist missionaries; and (14) summed up the foregoing with some remarks on the engraving of the edicts.

From a historical point of view, the 13th edict is the most important, as it makes mention of Asoka's Greek contemporaries. In this edict he mentions Antiochus of Syria, Ptolemy of Egypt, Antigonus of Macedon, Magas of Cyrene, and Alexander of Epiros, and adds with satisfaction, "there where the missionaries of the Beloved of the Gods* have been sent, there the people have heard the duties of the religion preached on the part of the Beloved of the Gods, and conform, and will conform, to the religion and religious instructions." Thus, through the zeal of the great Emperor of India, Buddhism was preached on the distant shores of Greece, Egypt, and Syria in the third century before Christ, and

* Asoka calls himself "Beloved of the Gods" in his edicts. The phrase may have been a part of his name or title.