A

COMPREHENSIVE

HISTORY OF INDIA.

BOOK IV.

OF THE INSTITUTIONS, LITERATURE, ARTS, AND
MANNERS OF THE HINDOOS.

CHAPTER I.

Origin and Classification of the Hindoos.

not the

of India.

HE Hindoos, though now forming the great body of the A.D. population of India, do not seem to have been its earliest inhabitants. These, it is probable, are still represented Hindoos by some of the hill tribes, who after contending in vain aborigines against foreign invaders, quitted the plains, and found an asylum among mountains and forests, into which the conquering race could not or cared not to follow them. The tradition is that the Hindoos entered India from the north-west, and had their first settlement in a small tract lying about 100 miles north-west of Delhi, between the Guggur and the Soorsooty. In the Institutes of Menu this tract is said to have been named Brahmaverta, because it was "frequented by the gods," and the custom preserved in it by immemorial tradition is recommended as "approved usage." From this tract the Hindoos appear to have spread eastward, and occupied the whole country north of the Jumna and the Ganges. To distinguish this country from Brahmaverta it was called Brahmarshi, and from Brahmins born within it all men on earth are enjoined to learn their several usages. Besides these tracts Menu mentions two others-Medhyadesa, or the central region said to lie between Himayat (the Himalaya) and Vindhya; and Aryaverta, or the land of respectable men, described in rather indefinite terms, but meant apparently to include the countries stretching on each side of the central region, "as far as the eastern and the western oceans," in other words, the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea.

Assuming that at the time when the Institutes of Menu were compiled, the whole territory included under the names of Brahmaverta, Brahmarshi,

VOL. II.

90

A.D.

Fabulous

nature of

Instory and chronology.

Medhyadesa, and Aryaverta, was in full and undisputed possession of the Hindoos, we turn to their records in the hope of obtaining accounts more or less authentic of the manner in which they made their original conquests, and afterHindoo wards extended them into the Deccan, so as to bring the whole of India under their power. Unfortunately, on these important points the Hindoo annals furnish no information, and we are presented, instead of historical details, with the most extravagant fables. Commencing at a period so remote that the mind is unable to form any definite conception of the years which have elapsed since its commencement, we arrive at last at four yugas or ages, evidently resembling those with which the literature of the Greeks and Romans has made us familiar. The first age, or satya yuga, lasted 1,728,000 years. During this age man existed in his most perfect form The whole race was free from any taint of corruption; and each individual, besides being of gigantic stature, lived 100,000 years. In the second age, or treta yuga, one-third of the human race had become corrupt, and the duration of the whole period, as well as of human life, suffered a corresponding diminution, the former being reduced to 1,296,000 years, and the latter to 10,000 years. In the third age, or dwapara yuga, corruption still proceeding, the whole period was reduced to 864,000, and the life of man to 1000 years. In the fourth age, or cali yuga, corruption became universal, and while human life has been restricted to its present maximum of 100 years, it has been predicted that the whole number of years now running their destined course will not exceed 432,000. The three first ages are evidently fabulous; but Hindoo chronology, maintaining a kind of consistency in its extravagance, treats them all as equally authentic, and assigns historical events to each. In some instances, indeed, even the myriads of years included in the ages are deemed insufficient, and the Institutes of Menu, though certainly not older than the ninth century before our era, are fabled to have been written at a date, to reach which, in counting backwards, the 4,320,000 years of the four ages must be multiplied by six times seventy one. In a similar spirit the Surya Sidhantu, an astronomical work of the fifth or sixth century, is assigned to the satya yuga, and gravely declared to have been written more than two millions of years ago.

Four ages.

The cali yuga alone historical.

The cali yuga is the only age which can be regarded as historical. It commenced about 5000 years ago, and thus falls within the period during which we know, from an infallible source, that men have lived upon the earth, and may have spread eastward from their original seat into the basin of the Ganges. Still, notwithstanding some remarkable coincidences, it is difficult in the extreme to unravel the web of Hindoo fiction, and assign a real existence to beings who, though living and performing exploits in localities which are easily identified, figure as the familiar associates of supernal or infernal powers, as the descendants of the sun and moon, and even as incarnations of deity. Such are the heroes of the two celebrated epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharat.