finally settled down in India, adopted the Buddhist religion, and formed a part of the people. Buddhism declined after the Christian era just as the Hinduism of the Rig Veda declined in the epic period. Ceremonials increased, and idolatry and Buddha worship were introduced. Brâhmanism adopted many of the popular Buddhist forms and ceremonies, and thus a new form of Hinduism gradually replaced Buddhism in India. We find an uninterrupted series of Buddhist rock-cut caves, Chaityas or churches, and Vihàras or monasteries, all over India, dating from the time of Asoka to the fifth century A.D.; but there are scarcely any specimens of Buddhist architecture of a later date. Templebuilding and Hindu architecture flourished from the sixth century A.D., to long after the Mohamedan conquest. The Buddhist scriptures, settled in the third Council by Asoka, form a very valuable record of the times, and are the best materials for the study of what is known as Southern Buddhism. These scriptures are in the Pali language, and are to be found in Ceylon. Nepal, Thibet, China, and Japan, follow Northern Buddhism. FIFTH EPOCH (500 A.D. to 1000 A.D.) This is the period of the later or Purânic form of Hinduism. The period began with great deeds in politics and literature. Foreign invaders had harassed India for centuries, but at last a great avenger arose. Vikramaditya the Great, of Ujjayinî, was the master of Northern India; he beat back the invaders known as the Sakas in the great battle of Korur, and asserted Hindu independence. Hindu genius and literature revived under his auspices, and a new form of Hinduism asserted itself. The three centuries commencing with the time of Vikramâditya the Great (500 to 800 A.D.), may be called the Augustan era of Sanskrit literature, and nearly all the great works which are popular in India to this day belong to this period. Kâlidâsa wrote his matchless dramas and poems in Vikrama's court. Of his play called the Sakuntala Goethe says: "Would'st thou the life's young blossoms, and the fruits of its decline, And all by which the soul is pleased, enraptured, feasted, fed? Would'st thou the earth and heaven itself in one sweet name combine? I name thee, O Sakuntala, and all at once is said.” As a dramatist he is the Shakespeare of India. Amarasinha, the lexicographer, was another of the "nine gems" of this court, and Bhâravi was Kâlidâsa's contemporary, or lived shortly after. Silâditya II., a successor of Vikramâditya, ruled from 610 to 650 A.D., and is the reputed author of Ratnávali. Dandin, the author of Dasakumára Charita, was an old man when Silâditya II. reigned; and Bânabhatta, the author of Kádamvari, lived in his court. Subandhu, the author of Vasavadattá, also lived at the same time; and there are reasons to believe that the BhattiKavya was composed by Bhartrihari, the author of the Satakas, in the same reign. In the next century Yasovarman ruled between 700 and 750 A.D., and the renowned Bhavabhûti composed his powerful dramas in this reign. Bhavabhûti, however, was the last of the poets and literary men of ancient India, and no great literary genius arose in India after the eighth century. It was in this Augustan era also that the voluminous religious works, the Puranas, which have given their name to this period, were recast in their present shape. In modern Hindu science, too, we have the brightest names in these three centuries. Aryabhatta, the founder of modern Hindu astronomy, was born in 476 A.D., and produced his work early in the sixth century. Varâhamihira, his successor, was one of the "nine gems" of Vikrama's court. Brahmagupta was born in 598, and was therefore a contemporary of Bânabhatta, the novelist. Other astronomers of note also lived about the sixth century. This bright period of three centuries was followed by a period of impenetrable darkness, corresponding to the Dark Ages of Europe. And when light breaks in again in the eleventh century, we find Rajput Chiefs the masters of India, as we find Feudal Barons the masters of Europe after the Dark Ages. The Rajputs were succeeded by the Mohamedans at the close of the twelfth century, the Mohamedans by the Mahrattas at the close of the seventeenth, and they by the British at the close of the eighteenth century. U ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE IN INDIA BY ROMESH DUTT, C.I.E. (Lecturer in Indian History at University College, London, WHEN the East India Company was appointed Diwan, or revenue administrator, for Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, in 1765, the administration of law and justice was still left in the hands of the Nawab of Bengal, and the important duty was miserably performed. Zemindars, however, still continued to maintain peace and order within their estates, and exercised the necessary police and judicial functions. SUPREME COURT AND THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM OF HASTINGS The Regulating Act of 1773 created the Supreme Court of Calcutta; and Warren Hastings, who became Governor-General of India in 1774, organised a new system for the administration of justice in the interior of Bengal. He took away all judicial and police powers from local zemindars and low- paid fouzdars; he established a civil court and a criminal court in each district; and he appointed the district collector of revenues to preside at these courts, assisted by Hindu and Musalman officials. He drew up a code of regulations for the guidance of these district officers called Collectors; and he established two courts of appeal in Calcutta-the Sadr Diwani Adalat for civil cases, and the Sadr Nizamat Adalat for criminal cases. THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM OF LORD CORNWALLIS Lord Cornwallis, who succeeded Warren Hastings as Governor-General of India, effected many important reforms. He relieved the Collector of his judicial duties; he appointed Magistrates and Judges to try criminal and civil cases; and he appointed four provincial appellate courts between the District courts and the Sadr courts established by Hastings. In this way Lord Cornwallis really laid the foundations of the system of judicial administration which still prevails in India. In some respects his system has been since modified, and modified not for the better. The provincial appellate courts exist no longer; and the functions of the Magistrate and the Collector have been vested in the same officers, for the sake of convenience or cheapness, but to the dissatisfaction and harassment of the people. It was also from the time of Lord Cornwallis that formal and definitive legislative enactments began in the series of laws known as the Bengal, Madras, and Bombay Regulations. Both Hastings and Cornwallis made one fatal mistake; they reposed no trust in the people, they gave them no real share in the judicial administration, they vested all real power in European officers. The plan could not succeed, and did not succeed. Crimes multiplied in Bengal, robbery occurred everywhere, and life and property were unsafe. The vast powers given to two European Superintendents of police to arrest men on suspicion deepened the evil. In one district in Bengal 2071 persons were arrested on suspicion between May 1808 and May 1809, and remained in jail for two years without a trial. Many died in prison. |