Mathurá, will reach Kusumadhvaja (Patna). Pushpapura (Patna) being taken, all provinces will undoubtedly be in disorder." Farther on Garga says, “The unconquerable Greeks will not remain in the middle country. There will be a cruel dreadful war among themselves. Then, after the destruction of the Greeks at the end of the Yuga, seven powerful kings will reign in Oudh." We are then told that after the Greeks the rapacious Sakas became powerful, and we have little difficulty in recognizing in the Sakas the Turanian tribe which first destroyed the Bactrian kingdom about 126 B.C., and then poured into India. A Hindu writer so rarely speaks of foreigners, even when they invade his country, that the above account of the Greeks and the Turanians in Garga's work is considered a curious and remarkable passage in Sanscrit literature. And it helps us to fix the date of Garga's astronomy, or of the work which is before us, as of the first century before Christ. Other astronomical works were composed within the Buddhist period, but they have mostly been lost. Hindu writers speak of no less than eighteen Siddhántas or astronomical works, and they are named as below: I. Parásara. 6. Vasishtha. 7. Atri. 8. Kasyapa. 9. Nárada. Io. Marichi 17. Bhrigu. 18. Saunaka or Soma. Most of these works, however, are lost, or have been recast in more modern times. Five of them, viz., Brahma, Súrya, Vasishtha, Romaka, and Pulisa, were recast and compiled by Varáhamihira in the sixth century after Christ, in his famous work of which we will speak in a subsequent chapter. A few words about these five Siddhántas will therefore suffice. The Brahma Siddhánta was not only thus included by Varáhamihira in his comprehensive work, but was recast by another astronomer, Brahmagupta, in the seventh century; and Brahmagupta's work has almost entirely superseded the original work of the Buddhist Age. The Súrya Siddhánta is probably the best known work in Hindu astronomy. But the original work of the Buddhist Age was first included by Varáhamihira in his compilation, and has since been recast several times by later astronomers. Nevertheless, the work as we find it now is a "lineal and legitimate descendant", as Dr. Kern calls it, of the original work. In its present state it is divided into fourteen chapters, and treats of the mean places and true places of planets, of questions of time, of the eclipses of the moon and the sun, of the conjunction of planets and stars, of the heliacal rising and setting of planets and stars, of the phases of the moon and the position of the moon's cusps, of the declination of the sun and the moon, of cosmography, of the construction of astronomical instruments, and of the different ways of reckoning time. Vasishtha Siddhánta was revised by a later astronomer, Vishnu Chandra. A spurious Vasishtha Siddhánta, a very modern work, exists to this day. Romaka Siddhanta is ascribed by Brahmagupta to Srí Sena. A spurious Romaka Siddhánta exists, which contains a horoscope of Jesus Christ and some accounts of the Mogul emperors of India, Baber and Akbar. Pulisa Siddhánta was, Professor Weber thinks, an adaptation into Sanscrit of the astrological work Eisagóge of Paulus Alexandrinus. Dr. Kern thinks the identifica tion of Pulisa with Paulus is doubtful, but he has no doubt that Pulisa refers to some Greek astronomer. These were the five best known astronomical systems of the Buddhist Age, after those of Parásara and Garga. Their dates may be roughly fixed between the first and third centuries after Christ. In the science of medicine the Hindus had made very considerable progress when the Greeks came to India in the fourth century before Christ. Nearchus (quoted by Arrian) informs us that "the Grecian physicians found no remedy against the bite of snakes, but the Indians cured those who happened to incur that misfortune". Arrian himself tells us that the Greeks "when indisposed applied to their sophists (Brahmans), who by wonderful, and even more than human means, cured whatever would admit of cure". The medical science is collectively known as A'yurveda, but unfortunately no work of a date undoubtedly before the Christian era has come down to us. The writings of Charaka and Susruta are the oldest works that exist; and all that we can say about their dates is that they were probably composed within the Buddhist Age, i.e., in the centuries immediately before or after the birth of Christ. Charaka's is principally a work on medicines, and Susruta's on surgery. There is much in these works which is fanciful, and will appear absurd to a modern physician; but nevertheless the comprehensive nature of the treatises, and the minute knowledge of anatomy, surgery, drugs, and chemical preparations which they show is remarkable, when we consider their age. Charaka's work is divided into eight parts, which treat of medicines, diseases, and epidemics, of the nature of the soul, of the organs and their functions, of the body and its various diseases, and lastly, of emetics, purgatives, antidotes, various kinds of injections, &c. Susruta's work is divided into six parts, and treats of surgical operations, of the symptoms of various diseases, of the structure of the body, puberty, conception and growth, of wounds, ulcers, fractures, and midwifery, and of antidotes and special diseases. Dr. Royle has shown that the medicinal use of metals was largely known to the Hindus. They were acquainted with the oxides of copper, iron, tin, zinc, and lead; with the sulphurets of iron, copper, antimony, mercury, and arsenic; with the sulphates of copper, zinc, and iron ; with the diacetate of copper and the carbonate of lead and iron. "Though the ancient Greeks and Romans," says Dr. Royle, "used many metallic substances as external applications, it is generally supposed the Arabs were the first to prescribe them internally. . . . But in the works of Charaka and Susruta, to which, as has been proved, the earliest of the Arabs had access, we find numerous metallic substances directed to be given internally." The vegetable resources of India are almost unlimited, and the knowledge of drugs shown in the works named above is correspondingly extensive. Most of them are assuaging and depuratory medicines, suited to the climate of the country and the unexcitable constitution of the people. But the knowledge of surgery among the ancient Hindus was even more remarkable than their knowledge of drugs; and it will no doubt excite some surprise, says Dr. Royle, "to find among the operations of those ancient surgeons those of lithotomy and the extraction of fœtus ex utero, and that no less than 127 surgical instruments are described in their works". The Arabs had access early to the Hindu works of medicine. Serapion, Rhazes, and Avicenna quote Charaka, and Harun-al-Rashid in the eighth century after Christ retained as his own physicians two Hindu doctors known as Manka and Saleh in the Arabian records. EPOCH V.-PURANIC AGE. ASCENDENCY OF KANOUJ AND UJAIN. A.D. 400-800. CHAPTER I. KANOUJ AND UJAIN. THE land of the Kurus and the Panchálas on the upper course of the Ganges had been the foremost in civilization in the Epic Age; and although it declined in political power and importance from the time of the rise of Magadha, it was always considered as sacred and holy in a special degree as the home of pure Aryan Hindus. After the decline of Magadha this land regained its former importance, and a new epoch begins with the history of the Guptas of Kanouj, who became the emperors of Northern India. This powerful dynasty commenced its rule in the fourth century, and the third king of the line, Chandragupta I. of Kanouj, assumed the title of Vikramaditya, a title which was subsequently assumed by many other kings. Chandragupta's son, Samudragupta, was a most powerful potentate, and we learn from an inscription on a pillar at Allahabad that he conquered all the kings of Northern India; that frontier kingdoms like Bengal, Nepal, and Assam paid him homage or tribute, and that the Shahs of Western kingdoms and the kings of Ceylon sent him offerings. |