The Sikhs, who inhabit the Punjaub and the territory lying to the east of the Sutlej, practise the religion of the reformer Narrak, who flourished in the fifteenth century.

The doctrines of the Brahminical books and of the Koran were alike abrogated by the creed which he taught. Caste was abjured, Hinduism, and every semblance of superstition abandoned, the Brahmins ignored, and faith in the Supreme Being regarded as sufficient. in itself to secure eternal bliss.

The Parsees, found chiefly in Bombay, are the remnant of the ancient Persians who, in the middle of the seventh century, fled from the persecutions of the Mohammedans under Kaliph Omar, and found an asylum, first amid the fastnesses of Khorassin, and eventually in Hindustan. They profess the faith of Zoroaster or fire-worship, which is the ancient religion of Persia; and are the representatives of those who, when the wave of Islamism swept over the plains of Shiraz, chose rather to endure persecution and exile than abandon the religion of their fathers. The Parsees are generally engaged in mercantile pursuits; and their industry and enterprise have given them an importance which, numerically speaking, they do not possess.

Christianity has been introduced of late years into the peninsula; and, through the exertions of the missionary societies, has made great progress. The country is divided into three dioceses, corresponding with the three great presidencies. The island of Ceylon forms a separate see, known as the diocese of Colombo. The number of the Christians in India is reckoned at something less than a quarter of a million.

CHAPTER IV.

EARLY HISTORY.

Characteristics of Early History-Of the Brahminical StoriesComparison of the Theocracy of India with those of Greece and Scandinavia-Uses of Early Legend-Dawn of Commercial Intercourse-Invasion of India by Sesostris-By Semiramis-Her Defeat by Strabobates Conquest by Darius Hystaspes-by Alexander-Expedition of Ñearchus-India after the Death of Alexander.

THE early history of India is involved in the obscurity surrounding the annals of every nation whose existence is traceable to that far-off era denominated pre-historic; when letters were as yet unknown; when tradition was of necessity the only channel whereby the transactions of one generation were transmitted to the people of another; and when an absurd and pompous mythology, added to extravagant legend, was made to supply the place of simple, historic narrative.

It is with such-like materials that the chronicles of all ancient communities begin; and, could we place dependence upon such records, the early history of the Hindus would yield to none in copiousness of incident and fulness of detail. Unfortunately, however, for the cause of historic truth the Brahminical poems which affect to relate the transactions of early times teem with extravagant and unnatural occurrences. No attempt is ever made to establish a chronological sequence; and when chronology is at all employed, it is to impart to the lives of men a more than antediluvian longevity, and to transient events the duration of a cycle.

Moreover, the actions of men and of the deities are absurdly mingled in the production of legends so irrational, and so utterly antagonistic to the human reason as to tax the patience and disgust the understanding. It

may be true that the myths of Greece and Scandinavia are not more trustworthy than the stories of the Hindu mythology. They possess, nevertheless, the advantage of being more in conformity with what is reasonable and natural, and far more delightful in the general purity of their conceptions; and as a consequence, they are more grateful to the tastes of the cultivated student. In short, one cannot contemplate their charming stories without coming to the conclusion that, however little dependence we may place upon them as exponents of historic fact, they are certainly no artfully woven fictions created for the purpose of imposing upon the credulity of mankind, but objects of genuine belief with those who published them; while their Hindu counterparts, on the other hand, in their absurd extravagance, bear the unmistakable stamp of falsehood, such as has gained for their authors, from a great authority upon Indian matters, the epithet of the most deliberate fabricators with whom the annals of fable have yet made us acquainted.

This, then, being the character of these early Hindu chronicles, it would scarcely be prudent, considering the circumscribed space at our command, to give them the same prominence as historic fact. We cannot, however, pass them over without remarking, that these semi-sacred poems which passed for history, though extravagant in their scope, and utterly untrustworthy as records of actual transactions, are nevertheless of priceless value; because they help to cast a light upon the condition of Hindu society in pre-historic times, such as we should never have obtained had their authors remained silent. "We cannot," says Mill, "describe the lives of their kings, or the circumstances and results of a train of battles. But we can show how they lived together as members of the community and of families; how they were arrayed in society; what arts they practised; what tenets they believed; what manners they displayed; under what species of government they existed; and what character as human beings they possessed. This is by far the most useful and important part of history."

Although it is necessary to bear in mind the fact that no date of a public event can be traced further back than the invasion of Alexander; and no consecutive chronicle of the national transactions till the Mohammedan conquest of the country, it is difficult to believe that a nation claiming a civilization older than that of Greece or Egypt, should remain so long unknown to the inhabitants of the outer world. We may have nothing to substantiate it, but we may well suppose that the extensive and valuable productions of India were not hidden from the knowledge of contemporary nations. Providence in its wisdom has ordained that the treasures of His universe shall not remain for ever the monopoly of those whose privilege it is to be placed directly in their midst. There would indeed appear to be some undefinable principle which ever operates in spreading a knowledge of their existence to mankind; and no surer do the sweets of nature attract the winged plunderer, than do the riches of the earth invite the cupidity of the merchant, or excite the ambition of the conqueror.

There appears to be but little doubt that those early pioneers of commercial enterprise, the Phoenicians, carried on a lucrative trade with India by way of the Euphrates and Arabia Petræa; and, if this be so, although no direct allusion is made to this country in the pages of Holy Writ, the Jews must have profited from Indian industry and ingenuity. The luxuries of Solomon's household were probably derived from this favoured region of the earth.

The earliest recorded invasion of India is that of Sesostris the great Egyptian conqueror. This monarch, the self-styled king of kings, is said to have fitted out a fleet of four hundred vessels in the Arabian Gulf, with which he subdued all the lands along the Erythrian Sea to India, which country he then overran as far as the Ganges. No traces of this conquest, however, exist; and no authentic record details the progress of his victorious march, so that the occurrence is an extremely doubtful one. A more probable event-though perhaps not more trustworthy in point of detail-is the invasion of the country by the

Assyrian Queen Semiramis. We learn from the historian, Diodorus, who writes mainly upon the authority of Ctesias, that this celebrated sovereign, after having carried her arms victoriously over Media, Persia, Egypt, and Ethiopia, was induced, by the reports which reached her concerning the wealth and natural resources of the land, to bring it also within the compass of her vast empire.

The account of her expedition reads like a romance. Two great obstacles appear to have stood in the way of her advance, namely--the broad and rapid current of the Indus, and the employment of elephants by the natives. The first difficulty was met by the construction of vessels suited to the necessities of the occasion; the second by employing sham elephants of ox-hides in which men and camels were placed. An army of a million of fightingmen, with the necessary supplies, was collected, and marched to the bank of the great river. Upon the opposite side the Indian king, Strabobates, had posted himself with an equally formidable host to oppose her advance. In mid-stream the combatants met. The rudely-constructed boats of the Indian commander were no match for the more substantial craft of Semiramis, with whom, therefore, after a gallant struggle, the victory remained. Her immense host now crossed into the enemy's country, and a battle began in which the tide of fortune was turned in favour of the Indian monarch, who, by means of his elephants, overthrew his adversary with great slaughter. Semiramis fled with an army diminished to onefourth its original force; and neither she nor any of her successors again attempted an expedition in this direction.

The next undertaking of the kind on record was that of Scylax of Caryandra in the employ of Darius Hystaspes, monarch of Persia, and the most distinguished naval commander of the age. This expedition, although partaking rather the character of an exploration than a conquest, was, nevertheless, the prelude to the subjugation of the country, and its reduction to the condition of a satrapy of the Persian empire. Although the account of the expedition, as given by Herodotus, is extremely