IV.

BOOK the Deckan. It is probable that the poets who have celebrated Ráma, not only reared a great fabric on a narrow basis, but transferred their hero's exploits to the scene which was thought most interesting in their own day.

War of the

"Mahá Bhárat."

The undoubted antiquity of the "Ramáyana” is the best testimony to the early date of the event which it celebrates; yet, as no conspicuous invasion of the Deckan could have been undertaken without great resources, Ráma must have lived after Hindú civilisation had attained a considerable pitch.

After Ráma, sixty princes of his race ruled in succession over his dominions; but, as we hear no more of Ayodha (Oud), it is possible that the kingdom (which at one time was called Coshala) may have merged in another; and that the capital was transferred from Oud to Canouj.

The war celebrated in the "Mahá Bhárat" is the next historical event that deserves notice.

It is a contest between the lines of Pándu and of Curu (two branches of the reigning family) for the territory of Hastinapúra (probably a place on the Ganges, north-east of Delhi, which still bears the ancient name). The family itself is of the lunar race, but the different parties are supported by numerous allies, and some from very remote quarters.

There seem to have been many states in India (six, at least, in the one tract upon the Ganges * ) ;

*

Hastinapúra, Mattra, Panchála (part of Oud and the lower Doáb), Benares, Magada, and Bengal. (Oriental Magazine,

but a considerable degree of intercourse and connection appears to have been kept up among them. Crishna, who is an ally of the Pándus, though born on the Jamna, had founded a principality in Gu zerát: among the allies on each side are chiefs from the Indus, and from Calinga in the Deckan; some, even, who, the translators are satisfied, belonged to nations beyond the Indus; and Yávanas, a name which most orientalists consider to apply, in all early works, to the Greeks. The Pándus were victorious, but paid so dear for their success, that the survivors, broken-hearted with the loss of their friends and the destruction of their armies, abandoned the world and perished among the snows of Hémalaya. Crishna, their great ally, fell, as was formerly stated, in the midst of civil wars in his own country. Some Hindú legends relate that his sons were obliged to retire beyond the Indust; and, as those Rájpúts who have come from that quarter in modern times to Sind and Cach are of his tribe of Yádu, the narrative seems more deserving of credit than at first sight might appear. The more authentic account, however (that of the

vol. iii. p. 135.; Tod, vol. i. p. 49.) Ayodha is not mentioned in the "Mahá Bhárat," nor Canacubya (Canouj), unless, as asserted in Menu (Chap. II. s. 19.), Panchála is only another name for that kingdom.

* See p. 175.

+ See Colonel Tod, vol. i. p. 85., and the translation (through the Persian) of the "Mabá Bhárat," published by the Oriental Translation Fund, in 1831.

CHAP.

I.

BOOK
IV.

Magada.

"Mahá Bhárat" itself), describes them as finally returning to the neighbourhood of the Jamna.

The story of the "Mahá Bhárat" is much more probable than that of the "Ramáyana." It contains more particulars about the state of India, and has a much greater appearance of being founded on facts. Though far below the "Iliad" in appearance of reality, it bears nearly the same relation to the Ramáyana" that the poem on the Trojan war does to the legends on the adventures of Hercules; and, like the "Iliad," it is the source to which many chiefs and tribes endeavour to trace their ancestors.

The date of the war has already been discussed.* It was probably in the fourteenth century before Christ.

Twenty-nine (some say sixty-four) of the descendants of the Pándus succeeded them on the throne; but the names alone of those princes are preserved. The seat of their government seems to have been transferred to Delhi.

The successors of one of the kings who appear as allies in the same poem were destined to attract greater notice. These are the kings of Magada, of whom so much has been already said. †

The kings of Magada seem always to have possessed extensive authority. The first of them (he who is mentioned in the "Mahá Bhárat”) is represented as the head of a number of chiefs and tribes; but most of those probably were within the limits of Bengal and Behár, as we have seen that there * Page 267. + Page 260.

were five other independent kingdoms in the tract
watered by the Ganges. *
For many centuries they were all of the military
tribe;
but the last Nanda was born of a Súdra
mother; and Chandragupta, who murdered and
succeeded him, was also of a low class: from this
time, say the Puránas, the Cshetryas lost their
ascendancy in Magada, and all the succeeding kings
and chiefs were Súdras.†

They do not seem to have lost their consequence from the degradation of their cast; for the Súdra successors of Chandragupta are said, in the hyperbolical language of the Puránas, to have brought the "whole earth under one umbrella ‡;" and there appears the strongest reason to believe that Asóca, the third of the line, was really in possession of a commanding influence over the states to the north of the Nerbadda. The extent of his dominions appears from the remote points at which his edict columns are erected; and the same monuments bear testimony to the civilised character of his government; since they contain orders for esta

* It is remarkable the Yávanas or Greeks are represented as allies of the king of Magada,- a circumstance evidently arising from the connection between the king of the Prasii and the successors of Alexander. (Professor Wilson, Asiatic Researches, vol. xv. p. 101.) Another of their allies, Bhagadatta, who receives the pompous title of "King of the South and West," appears by the "Ayeen Akbery" (vol. ii. p. 16.) to have been prince of Bengal.

↑ Sir W. Jones, Asiatic Researches, vol. ii. p. 139.; Professor Wilson, Hindú Drama, vol. iii. p. 14.

Professor Wilson, Hindú Theatre, vol. iii. p. 14.

CHAP.

I.

IV.

BOOK blishing hospitals and dispensaries throughout his empire, as well as for planting trees and digging wells along the public highways.

This ascendancy of Asóca is the earliest ground I have been able to discover for an opinion which has been maintained, that the kings of Magada were emperors and lords paramount of India; and Colonel Wilford, who has recorded all that he could ascertain regarding those kings, states nothing that can countenance a belief in a greater extent or earlier commencement of their supremacy. During the war of the "Mahá Bhárat," it has been shown that they formed one of six little monarchies within the basin of the Ganges; and that they were among the unsuccessful opponents of one of those petty states, that of Hastinapúra.

Alexander found no lord paramount in the part of India which he visited; and the nations which he heard of beyond the Hyphasis were under aristocratic governments. Arriant and Strabo say that the Prasii were the most distinguished of all the Indian nations; but neither hints at their supremacy over the others. Arrian, indeed, in giving this preference to the Prasii, and their king, Sandracottus, adds that Porus was greater than he. Megasthenes says that there were 118 nations in India, but mentions none of them as subordinate to the Prasii. It is impossible to suppose that

* Asiatic Researches, vol. ix.
+ Chap. v.

§ Quoted by Arrian, chap. vii.

Book xv. p. 483.