king of Hastinâpura, had a brother Devâpi, who was a priest. The most learned character in the epic, Yudhishthira, is a Kshatriya, and the most skilful warrior Drona is a Brâhman. And the venerable compiler of the Vedas, Krishna Dvaipâyana himself—was he a Brahman or a Kshatriya?

CHAPTER III.

VIDEHAS, KOSALAS AND KASIS.

B. C. 1200 TO B. C. 1000.

THE tide of Aryan conquests rolled onward. Soon after the country between the Jumna and the Ganges had been completely conquered, peopled and Hinduized, new bands of adventurous settlers crossed the Ganges and marched further eastwards to found new colonies and new Hindu kingdoms. Stream after stream was crossed, forest after forest was explored and cleared, region after region was slowly conquered, peopled and Hinduized in this onward march towards the unknown east. The history of the long struggles and the gradual development of the Hindu power in these regions has been lost to us; and we only see, in the literature which has been preserved, the establishment of powerful and civilized Hindu kingdoms east of the Ganges,—the kingdom of the Kosalas in the country known as modern Oude, of the Videhas in North Behar, and of the Kâsîs in the country round modern Benares.

Some recollections of this eastern march has been preserved in stray passages, and attention was directed

many years ago by Professor Weber to one such passage in the Satapatha Brâhmana.

"10. Mâdhava the Videgha carried Agni Vaisvânara in his mouth. The Rishi Gotama Râhûgana was his family priest. When addressed (by the latter) he made no answer fearing lest Agni might fall from his mouth.

"13. Still he did not answer. (The priest continued): 'Thee O butter sprinkled one, we invoke!' (Rig Veda V, 26, 2.) So much he uttered when, at the very mentioning of butter, Agni Vaisvânara flashed forth from the king's mouth; he was unable to hold him back; he issued from his mouth and fell down on this earth.

"14. Mâdhava the Videgha was at that time on the (river) Sarasvatî. He (Agni) thence went burning along this earth towards the east; and Gotama Râhûgana and the Videgha Mâdhava followed after him as he was burning along. He burnt over (dried up) all these rivers. Now that (river) which is called Sadânîra (Gunduck river) flows from the northern (Himâlaya) mountain that one he did not burn over. That one the Brahmans did not cross in former times, thinking it has not been burnt over by Agni Vaisvânara.

"15. Now-a-days, however, there are many Brâhmans to the east of it. At that time it (the land east of the Sadânîra) was very uncultivated, very marshy, because it had not been tasted by Agni Vaisvânara.

"16. Now-a-days, however, it is very cultivated, for the Brâhmans have caused (Agni) to taste it through

sacrifices. Even in late summer that (river), as it were, rages along; so cold it is, not having been burnt over by Agni Vaisvânara.

"17. Mâdhava the Videgha then said (to Agni), 'Where am I to abide?' 'To the east of this (river) be thy abode!' said he. Even now this river forms the boundary of the Kosalas and Videhas; for these are the Mâdhavas (or descendants of Mâdhava)." (Satapatha Brahmana, I, 4, 1.)

Here then we have an account, in a legendary form, of the gradual march of the colonists from the banks. of the Sarasvatî eastwards until they came to the Gunduck. That river formed the boundary between the two kingdoms; the Kosalas lived to the west of it, and the Videhas to the east of it.

In course of years, probably of centuries, the kingdom of the Videhas rose in power and in civilization, until it became the most prominent kingdom in Northern India.

Janaka, king of the Videhas, is probably the most prominent figure in the history of the Epic Period in India! That monarch had not only established his power in the farthest confines of the Hindu dominions in India, but he gathered round him the most learned men of his time; he entered into discussion with them, and instructed them in holy truths about the Universal Being. It is this that has surrounded the name of Janaka with undying glory. King Ajâtasatru of the

Kâsîs, himself a learned man and a most renowned patron of learning, exclaimed in despair, "Verily, all people run away, saying, Janaka is our patron!" (Brihadâranyaka Upanishad, II, 1, 1.)

The great fame of Janaka is partly owing to the culture and learning of the chief priest of his court Yajnavalyka Vâjasaneyin. Under the royal auspices of Janaka this priest probably conceived the bold conception of revising the Yajur Veda as it then existed, of separating the formulas from the exegetic matter, of condensing the former in the shape of a new Yajur Veda (the White Yajur Veda known as the Vâjasaneyi Veda), and of amplifying the latter into a vast body of Brâhmana known as the Satapatha Brâhmana. Generations of priests laboured at this stupendous work, but the glory of starting the work belongs to the founder of the school, Yâjnavalkya Vâjasaneyin and his learned patron, King Janaka of the Videhas.

But Janaka has a still higher claim to our respect and admiration. While the priestly caste was still multiplying rituals and supplying dogmatic and ridiculous explanations for each rite, the royal caste seems to have felt some impatience at priestly supremacy and pedantry, and also at the ridiculous dogmas which were so authoritatively preached. Thinking and earnest Kshatriyas must have asked themselves if these rites and dogmas were all that religion could teach. Learned Kshatriyas, while still conforming to the rites laid down by priests,