nation ceremony, as it has been described in many works of the Epic Period. This ceremony and the imperial horse-sacrifice were the most imposing and ostentatious royal ceremonials of Ancient India, and we have already said something of the horse-sacrifice in connection with the two Epics of the Hindus. An extract or two about the coronation ceremony are all that is needed here.

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'He spreads the tiger skin on the throne in such a manner that the hairs come outside and that part which covered the neck is turned eastward. For the tiger is the Kshattra (royal power) of the beasts in the forests. The Kshattra is the royal prince; by means of this Kshattra, the king makes his Kshattra (royal power) prosper. The king, when taking his seat on the throne, approaches it from behind, turning his face eastwards, kneels down with crossed legs, so that his right knee touches the earth, and holding the throne with his hands, prays over it the following mantra :

"May Agni ascend thee, O throne, with the Gâyatrî Metre, &c.

"They now put the branch of the udambara tree on the head of the Kshattriya, and pour the liquids (which are in the large ladle) on it. (When doing so) the priest repeats the following mantras :

'With these waters which are happy, which cure every thing, increase the royal power, the immortal Prajâpati sprinkled Indra, Soma the king, Varuna, Yama Manu, R. C. D., A. I.

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with the same sprinkle I thee! Be the ruler over kings in this world. The illustrious mother bore thee as the great universal ruler over men; the blessed mother has borne thee, &c.'

"Now, he gives into his hand a goblet of spirituous liquor, under the recital of the verse Svadishthayâ Madishthayâ, &c. (9, 1, 1), ¿.e., Purify O Soma! with thy sweetest, most exhilarating drops (the sacrificer), thou who art squeezed for Indra to be drunk by him. After having put the spirituous liquor into his hand, the priest repeats a propitiatory mantra, &c.

"He now descends (from the throne seat) facing the branch of the udambara tree."-Aitareya Brahmana, VIII, 6 to 9.

We are then told that with this ceremony priests invested a number of kings whose names are already known to us. Tura, the son of Kavasha, thus inaugurated Janamejaya, the son of Parikshit. "Thence Janamejaya went everywhere, conquering the earth up to its ends, and sacrificed the sacrificial horse." Parvata and Nârada thus invested Yudhamsranshti, the son of Ugrasena. Vasishtha invested Sudas, the great conqueror in the Rig Veda hymns; and Dirghatamas invested Bharata, the son of Duhshanta, with this ceremony.

We have also an excellent account of the coronation rite in the Vâjasaneyi-Sanhitâ, from which we quote a

remarkable passage in which the priest blesses the newly crowned king :-" May God who rules the world bestow on you the power to rule your subjects. May fire, worshipped by house-holders, bestow on you supremacy over the house-holders. May Soma, the lord of trees, bestow on you supremacy over forests. May Vrihaspati, the god of speech, bestow on you supremacy in speech. May Indra, the highest among gods, bestow on you the highest supremacy. May Rudra, the cherisher of animals, bestow on you supremacy over animals. May Mitra, who is truth, make you supreme in truth. May Varuna, who cherishes holy works, make you supreme in holy acts."-IX, 39.

In the address to the people which follows, the priest tells them: "This is your king, O ye such and such tribes." The Kânva text reads thus: "This is your king, O ye Kurus, O ye Panchâlas."

We will conclude this chapter with an excellent piece of advice which is given to kings further on, which modern rulers will do well to remember: "If thou shalt be a ruler, then from this day judge the strong and the weak with equal justice, resolve on doing good incessantly to the public, and protect the country from all calamities"-X, 27.

CHAPTER V.

CASTE.

Four

As we drift down the history of Hindu civilization, we notice, along with a remarkable progress in sciences. and learning and the arts of peace, an unhappy sign of social institutions being more and more crystalised into hard-and-fast rules, which gradually contracted the liberties and the free energies of the people. or five centuries of peaceful residence in a genial climate in the fertile basin of the Ganges and the Jumna enabled the Hindus to found civilized kingdoms, to cultivate philosophy, science and arts, and to develope their religious and social institutions; but it was under the same gentle but enervating influences that they also unconsciously surrendered all social freedom, and were gradually bound down by unhealthy priest-imposed laws and restrictions which made further progress on the part of the people impossible. This is the dark side of Hindu civilization. Priestly supremacy threw its coils round and round the nation from its early youth, and the nation never attained that political and social freedom and strength which marked the ancient nations of Europe.

But the worst results of priestly supremacy were not brought about in a day. We see the dark cloud slowly forming itself at the close of the Vedic Period. We see it increasing in strength and volume in the Epic Period. We shall see it casting a still gloomier shadow on the society of the Rationalistic Period. But it is only in the Paurânik Period which followed the Buddhist Era that it threw an utter impenetrable gloom over a gifted but ill-fated nation. In the earlier periods, so long as the nation had the life and the strength of youth, it made repeated attempts to throw off priestly supremacy and to assert its free-born rights.

The

Kshattriyas made an attempt to assert themselves in the very period of which we are now speaking, as we have already seen. And the Kshatriyas made a stillmightier attempt later on to throw Brâhmanism overboard, and adopted the Buddhist religion all over the land. With the extinction of Buddhism such attempts seemed to end, and priestly supremacy became ten times worse than before. The energies of the nation were cramped, the natural boldness of martial races was subdued by superstitious beliefs, the feeling of potitical unity was almost annihilated, and the descendants of those who had fought the Kuru-Panchâla war, and had opposed the march of Alexander, fell before petty adventurers. The great nation was conquered by an adventurer from Ghor, who had scarcely a kingdom of his own, and whose descendants soon lost all connection