Vikramaditya, is probably the original of the Vikramaditya of legendary celebrity. At the beginning of the 7th century, Harsha, one of the notable names in Indian history, established himself as the undisputed master of Northern India, acknowledged from Gujarat in the West to Assam in the East. The whole period between the death of Harsha in 647 A.D. and the Muhammadan conquest of Hindustan at the close of the 12th century may be called the Rajput period, and one of the outstanding names of the period is that of Raja Bhoja, of Dhara, in Malwa. The principal Southern dynasties were the Andhras, who held the Deccan till about 236 A.D.; the Chalukyas of Vatapi (Badami in the Bijapur district); the Rashtrakutas of Nasik, and Manyakheta; and the three sister kingdoms of the Pandyas, the Cheras, and the Cholas in the extreme South. All these dynasties have passed away; and now, in the 20th century, the oldest Hindu Ruling Houses in India, those of Rajputana, can trace the origin of their present States only from about the 11th or 12th century, while the beautiful capitals of these States are nearly all of a much later period, Jodhpur and Udaipur dating from the middle of the 15th and 16th centuries. Partly owing to the protection afforded by the desert country which surrounds them, and partly owing to their strong feudal organisation, the Rajput States maintained a really independent position during the first three centuries of Muhammadan rule, and were able to secure one of subordinate independence under the Mughal Emperors. While the other Hindu Kingdoms of India were being gradually conquered, and the minor Muhammadan States absorbed, it is the proud boast of the Ranas of Udaipur that their line alone preserved their independence even in the days of the Mughals. Just when this process of absorption must have seemed to the ruling race to be complete, the ruthless treatment of the Rajputs and Marathas by the Emperor Aurangzeb evoked an outburst of Hindu feeling which proved the principal cause of the downfall of the Mughal Empire. The older-fashioned chivalrous temperament of the Rajputs was, however, no match for the vigour and hardihood of the Marathas; and when British interference practically checked an Imperial Maratha domination in India, it also saved the Rajputs from destruction. Of the other great Hindu Ruling Houses of India now existing, Mysore was restored by the British Power at the end of the 18th century, while the State of Jammu and Kashmir was created only about seventy-five years ago. The Sikh Ruling States, which date from the middle of the 18th century, owe their present existence to British protection against Maharaja Ranjit Singh, and the great Maratha States are of but slightly longer pedigree than these. The older and remote States of Travancore and Cochin would inevitably have fallen to the

Mysore Muhammadan dynasty had that survived, or to the Marathas, but for the advent of the British power. It is in the Indian States, rather than in the territories directly administered by the British, that the old-world customs and practices are still followed; and the traveller who, by means of a special introduction to the Resident or Political Agent, has the opportunity of properly observing them for a short time at one of the more remote Rajput capitals or in the Nair Kingdoms of the Malabar Coast, will find his interest amply rewarded.

THE BRAHMO SAMAJ

THE Brahmo Samaj represents the Theistic movement in India. It originated in Calcutta, and was formally inaugurated by Raja Ram Mohan Roy in 1830. One effect of early English education in India was to unsettle the minds of young men and shake their belief in orthodox Hinduism, and many of them drifted into atheism or agnosticism. The Raja, who was a man of commanding intellect and great piety, and was not only learned in the Hindu Scriptures, but had also studied the Bible in the original Hebrew and the Koran in Arabic, established the Brahmo Samaj on an eclectic basis, accepting what was best in all great religions, but drawing his inspiration mainly from the Upanishads. He left for Europe in 1831, and died there in 1833. The movement languished for a time, until in 1843 it was joined by Debendra Nath Tagore. He was intensely spiritual, and under his long leadership the Brahmo Samaj prospered, and branches were formed in various provincial centres. Keshab Chandra Sen became an adherent in 1857, and gave a fresh impetus to its activities. He was greatly influenced by the Bible, and introduced a definite programme of social reform. In 1862 he was ordained a minister of the Calcutta Brahmo Samaj. He was full of missionary zeal, and preached in different parts of India. His advanced views on social questions were not shared by Debendra Nath Tagore, and in 1866 he seceded and founded the Brahmo Samaj of India. Under his inspiring leadership the movement extended to Bombay, Madras, and the Panjab. In 1870 he visited England, and met with a cordial welcome from churches of all denominations. In 1872 he was instrumental in getting the "Native Marriage Act" passed to legalise inter-caste marriages. There was a further schism in 1878, when a large body of prominent Brahmos separated from Keshab Chandra Sen (who died in 1884), and the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj was duly organised, Keshab Chandra Sen's church being henceforth known as the New Dispensation. According to the census of 1921 there are 6388 Brahmos in India. The number is small, but it includes many men and women of culture

and position. The influence of the Brahmo Samaj is widely felt, and it is doing much to liberalise orthodox Hinduism and encourage social reform.

BUDDHISM AND THE BUDDHISTS

BUDDHISM is too vast a subject to be treated exhaustively in a few pages, but some notice of so widespread a religion is required. The history of the founder of Buddhism, the doctrines, the development and decadence of the religion, and its present circumstances, may be briefly stated.

Siddhartha Gautama, afterwards called Buddha (the Enlightened), or Sakyamuni, the sage of the Sakyas, belonged to the Kshatriya or warrior caste, and was the son of Suddhodana, ruler of the Sakya clan, settled around Kapilavastu, in the Nepalese Tarai, N. of the Basti district of the United Provinces. The year 563 B.C. has been suggested for his birth at the Lumbini garden, the modern Rummindei, near Kapilavastu, and 483 B.C. as the year of his death (p. 697 of Cambridge History of India, Vol. I., Ancient India, 1922).

The story of his life is contained in the sacred literature of the Buddhists, undoubtedly based on truth, though enveloped in a mass of legend. The sacred literature means the Pali Canon called the "Three Pitakas, or Baskets," besides subsequent commentaries. It contains the alleged genuine sayings of the Buddha and the moral and religious principles of Buddhism. Among the works in the Canon are the Sutras (or Suttas), the dialogues, the Dhammapada, the Jatakas, the Buddhist psychology, etc. Pali (the "Text") was a literary version of an Aryan dialect, later than the Vedas, earlier than classical Sanskrit. It had ceased to be a vernacular, but was the religious literature of Ceylon, Siam, and Burma, written on palmleaf manuscripts. At the age of twenty-nine Gautama made “the great renunciation" of the world and its pleasures. Much troubled by the spectacle of human suffering-age, disease, and death-and impressed by the sight of a peaceful saint, he decided to leave his happy home, his loved wife, and his lately born child, and surrender himself to the search of mental peace. Cutting off his long hair and changing his princely raiment, Gautama left the palace suddenly and secretly in ragged garments. As a disciple of two celebrated Brahman sages, he strove to content himself with their teaching and severe self-mortification; the strict austerities he practised produced no peace of mind or divine enlightenment-only great bodily weakness and a conviction of their inutility. So he abandoned penances, and sat in meditation under the Bo-tree, the "tree of knowledge," at Buddh Gaya, where he was tempted by Mara, the personification of

carnal desire, to return to the world; but he resisted, and became the Buddha-the Enlightened.

Repairing to Benares, he preached his first sermon on "The Foundation of the Kingdom of Righteousness," commemorated by the Dhamek Stupa at Sarnath, and henceforth devoted his whole life to teaching. In the kingdom of Magadha (now Bihar), where he travelled, he was received with great reverence and hospitality by all classes. Sometimes the King, or another wealthy donor, would build a residence for the Teacher. His disciples formed, under rules framed by the Master, the community of mendicants (Bhikshus) from which the great monastic organisation, called the Sangha, was developed. Places such as Lumbini and Buddh Gaya and his temporary residences became sacred spots. At nearly eighty he died at Kusinagara, modern Kasia, in Gorakhpur District. The ceremony of burning his body was conducted with pomp, as for a King, and his ashes were divided, as precious relics, among the chief people to whom he had preached. Part of these have recently been discovered at Peshawar (p. 341) and at Piprawa (p. 425); the ashes at the latter place have been judged from the inscription on the vase to be the relics of the Sakya Ruling Family. At his death Buddhism was the reformed religion of a sect, prevalent within the limited area of his preaching; it was maintained by the organisation of the Sangha until the day of its expansion dawned.

Only a summary of the philosophical doctrines of Buddhism can be attempted here. But some knowledge of its character as a religion is essential for an understanding of a great period of ancient India.

In the Buddhist religion the personality of the Buddha is predominant. No Supreme God is admitted in the system. The Buddha, as the teacher of the truth, and therefore the guide and saviour, is the central object of faith and devotion. By his doctrine the work of salvation is limited to human agency-that is, the human mind can achieve omniscience, and human nature arrive at absolute perfection; its purpose was to lead men to a higher life. Human and animal happiness were its avowed object as a practical religion. It had a kindly spirit, and a central tenet is to keep to the "middle path" between worldliness and asceticism. Buddha, it is believed, taught that all life is suffering; that suffering arises from indulgence in desires, especially the longing for continuity of life; and that the only hope of relief lies in the suppression of sensual passions and every attachment, in Nirvana, the highest bliss-meaning, not the extinction or negation of being, but the extinction, the absence, of passionate desire, the goal by which union with the perfect good is obtained. Ignorance, delusion, and anger, are also fundamental evils

and hindrances that must be completely destroyed by intense and continuous mental discipline. Each man must depend on himself and his own efforts towards intellectual and spiritual clearness. Each man must purify his life, grasp the law of causes, perceive the sorrow of existence, the impermanence of all states, and cease to believe in any "soul" apart from the elements which make up the individual and are dissolved at his death. Rewards and punishments, strictly speaking, do not come into the creed, but the inexorable working of cause and effect proceeds without a break, and thus good and evil done in one life bear fruit in the next. The connection between the lives is not the transmigration of a soul but the Karma (action), the force that passes on and causes the newly assembled elements of existence to form a new being living on earth or in one of the heavens or hells according to the acts and intentions of a former life, for those constitute the individual's Karma. A man's object should be to hear somewhere, at some time, the teaching of a Buddha and become enlightened by meditation and introspection, so as to earn a cessation of the cycle of lives through which he would otherwise be destined to pass, and thus finally to reach Nirvana, the sinless, calm state of mind in which there is no renewed individual existence. Thus the final death, with no new life to follow-as there is no soul which continues to exist after death-is a result of Nirvana, but it is not Nirvana. All men are capable of attaining Nirvana, without distinction of caste, and neither sacrifices nor bodily mortifications are of any avail. To attain salvation by obtaining freedom from delusions, the Buddhist must follow the eightfold path and pass through four stages of higher and higher saintliness. This, the Noble Path, is the very pith of Buddhism, by which alone the Buddhist can reach Arhatship, the state of salvation, the state of a man made perfect. The Buddha himself is believed to have passed through a great number of existences in the course of the preparation for his final mission. The legends of these lives of Gautama are the famous Jataka tales which have formed the subjects of many ancient sculptures, paintings, and literary works of Buddhist countries.

The principal virtues inculcated by Buddhism are charity, compassion, truthfulness, chastity, respect for the Sangha, and selfrestraint in regard to all the ambitions, pleasures, and attachments of life. The stricter code-the ten precepts-is binding on the religious order only the first five precepts are binding on the laity. They are practical rules forbidding (1) the destruction of life in any form, (2) theft, (3) unchastity, (4) lying, (5) indulgence in intoxicating drinks, (6) eating at forbidden hours, (7) frequenting performances, (8) use of unguents and ornaments, (9) use of a re or ornamented couch, (10) accepting money.