EPOCH II.-EPIC AGE.

HINDU KINGDOMS ON THE GANGES. B.C. 1400-1000.

CHAPTER I.

KURUS AND PANCHÁLAS.

WHEN the Hindus had conquered and settled in the wide extent of country from the Indus to the Sutlej and the Sarasvati, they were not long in sending out colonies farther east, towards the Ganges. The stream of emigrants and colonists increased from age to age, until the banks of the Ganges were studded with fair villages and towns surpassing in wealth and civilization those of the mother-land, Punjab. In the Rig Veda the home of the Hindus is the Punjab, and the allusions to the distant shores of the Ganges are rare. In the literature of the next succeeding epoch, which we may call the Epic Age, the shores of the Ganges are the home of most renowned and civilized Hindu kingdoms; the mother-country of the Punjab is already thrown into the shade.

Among the colonists who emigrated from the Punjab to the banks of the Ganges, the Kurus and the Panchálas were not the least distinguished. The Kurus were originally known under the name of Bháratas, and had figured in the wars of Sudás, of which we have spoken in a pre

ceding chapter. Numbers of them left their home and migrated eastwards, until, in the fourteenth century before Christ, they had founded a flourishing kingdom on the upper course of the Ganges. The nation was still known as the Bháratas, or under the newer name of Kurus, from the name of their kings, and they built their capital at Hastinapura, on the Ganges.

The Panchálas also came from the Punjab. The Punjab Hindus, or some tribes among them, are called in the Rig Veda, Pancha Jana or Pancha Krishti, i.e., the "five tribes", or the "five agricultural races", and it is probable that the descendants of these races colonized the shores of the Ganges under the name of the Panchálas or “five tribes". They settled immediately to the south of the Bharatas or Kurus, and had founded a powerful kingdom there by the fourteenth century before Christ, and called their capital Kámpilya.

Other nations from the Punjab also came and settled on the course of the Upper Ganges and the Jumna, among whom the Yadavas, the Matsyas, and the Surasenas were the most important. They are known to us from the share which they took in the great war, of which we will speak farther on.

The Kurus and the Panchálas lived in peace and friendly rivalry for a long time, and developed a civilization surpassing that of their sturdy and rough ancestors in the Punjab. Kings had polished courts, and delighted in assembling the wise and the learned of the age, who held controversies on morals, religion, and philosophy. Priests rejoiced in the performance of elaborate sacrifices, lasting for days, or weeks, or years, for the edification of monarchs; and were rewarded according to their learning and their merits. Learned men received pupils for education, and all Aryan Hindus made over their children at an early age to the charge of such teachers or Gurus.

Every boy lived with his Guru for years together, served him in a menial capacity, begged alms for his support, tended his flocks, swept his house, and acquired from him from day to day, and from year to year, the sacred knowledge of the Vedas and of other branches of learning which were the cherished heritage of the ancient Hindus. After leaving the Guru, and rewarding him handsomely, some young men prosecuted their studies further in Parishads, answering to modern universities, where a number of teachers bestowed instruction in different subjects; and after the completion of their education they returned to their homes, married, and settled down as householders.

The sacrificial fire was lighted on the occasion of the marriage, and every pious Hindu kept up the fire in his house, and offered to it libations and offerings as required by his religion. The hymns of the Veda were still uttered at the sacrifices, and the same religion, the same customs and rites, the same common language, prevailed among the different Hindu communities which flourished on the Ganges and the Jumna over three thousand years ago.

Indeed, as we study the state of the Hindu races of this epoch, each race forming a separate community and a kingdom of its own, and all races rejoicing in the same language, the same religion, and the same common civilization and manners, we are strongly reminded of the Greek cities which flourished side by side before the Peloponnesian war. Rivalries, and even hostilities, were as common among the Hindu races as among the Greek cities, while communications of a more friendly nature kept up their mutual relations. The schools of learning of the different races vied with each other, and the Parishads of the Kurus and the Panchálas attracted large numbers of students from other nations. In the midst of all this friendly rivalry, the Hindu tribes never relaxed their preparations for war. Princes of the royal houses

and of the military classes were early trained in arms as in arts, and were familiar with the bow and the arrow, the sword, the javelin, and the chakra or quoit. Jealousies among the different races broke out not unoften into open hostilities; and, as if to complete the parallel between the Indian states and the Greek cities, there was a great and sanguinary war in the thirteenth century before Christ, answering to the Peloponnesian war of Greece, in which all the known Hindu tribes of Northern India joined, and which ended in great carnage and slaughter.

This war forms the subject of the great Hindu epic known as the Mahábhárata; and, as might be expected, the real causes and events of the struggle are lost in fables and myths. The war was waged between the great races, the Kurus or Bháratas and the Panchálas, and the name of the epic signifies "the Great Bharata”.

Neither the Kurus nor the Panchálas, however, are the heroes of the epic as it has come down to us. The Pancha Pándava, or the five sons of Pándu, are the heroes, and their common wife, the daughter of the king of the Panchálas, is the heroine. The origin of this fable of the five Pándavas and of their common wife, which now forms the central story of the Hindu epic, has given rise to much discussion, into which it it needless to enter. It is certain that this central story is a myth.

The most probable supposition is that the Pándavas were a distinct race, who helped or led the Panchálas in the war; that the race is metaphorically represented in the epic as five brothers, and that their alliance with the Panchálas is metaphorically represented as their marrying a maiden of the Panchála house. Polyandry was unknown to the Hindus of ancient India, as it is to the Hindus of the present day.

It has also been supposed that at an age subsequent to the time of the war, and when kings of the Pándava

race wielded supreme power, the epic was first compiled from ballads, legends, or recollections relating to the great contest. Naturally, therefore, the supposed forefathers of the ruling race were represented as the heroes of the strife ; and although belonging to a distinct race, they were represented as cousins of the Kuru princes, so that later generations might not look upon them as usurpers.

From what has been stated above, it is apparent that we shall seek in vain in the epic for the real incidents of the war. But, nevertheless, it throws much light on the age of which we are now speaking, and no history of India, therefore, is complete without some account, however brief, of the war, even as disguised in the existing epic.

A king of the Kurus left two sons, of whom Dhritaráshtra, the elder, was blind, and Pándu, the younger, ascended the throne of Hastinapura. Pándu died, leaving five sons, the heroes of the epic, and jealousies and quarrels soon arose between them and the hundred sons of their uncle, Dhritarashtra.

The five sons of Pándu were trained in arms by their preceptor, Drona. The eldest, Yudhishthira, never became much of a warrior, but was versed in the religious lore of the age, and is the most righteous character in the epic. Bhíma, the second, was known for his great size and giant strength, and is the Hercules of the poem. Arjuna, the third, is the real hero of the epic, and excelled all in the skill of arms. Nakula, the fourth, learned to tame wild horses, and Sahadeva, the fifth, became proficient in astronomy. These brothers incurred the jealousy and hatred of their cousins from their youth up.

At last the day came for a public exhibition of the skill which the princes had acquired in the use of arms. A spacious area was enclosed. Nobles and ladies sat around to watch the tournament. The blind Dhrita