topics: |  history | india |

A century ago when it was published, this six volume history of India was considered the most authoritative. The volumes remain relevant for tracing the historiographic changes that have taken place. Also, some aspects are no longer considered as relevant in modern texts, such as the close analysis of Greek texts seeking what was known about India.

The book was published on the cusp of the discovery of Harappa, and is missing any reference to the settlements of the Indus-Saraswati Valley.

I ran a quick unix word frequency script, seeking to find the main keywords.

QUIZ: Who do you think is the king or person that this book names most frequently?

Word Frequency analysis : Sources and Names

The source most frequently mentioned is the Rigveda, but the puraNas, Manu and surprisingly, Strabo, are nearly tied for the second spot. Megasthenes as a source is twice as frequent as the Mahabharata:

		232  rigveda		
		153  manu	
		149  puranas
		147  strabo		
		176  megasthenes  (incl 54 megasth.)
		 93  mahabharata (incl. 29  mbh.)
		 91  euthydemus	
		 87  demetrius	
		 80  brahmanas	
		 78  upanishads (incl. 36 upanishad)
		 95  antiochus	
		 54  menander	
		 47  heracles	
		 32  atharvaveda	
		 31  ramayana	(incl one variant)
		 24  kautilya + chanakya  (14 chanakya, 10 kautilya)
		 22  ptolemy		
		 21  baudhayana	
		 17  panini		

So what name have you guessed?  Go ahead.  Guess a name before
proceeding...


[continued]

The person who is named most frequently is not from India at all.  The king
who is named most commonly is Alexander, who appears five times as
frequently as Chandragupta and twice as often as Buddha or Asoka:

		393  alexander	
		193  buddha		
		154  asoka [variants asoka+aCoka]
 		 92  ajatasatru  (46 + 24 ajatasattu + 22 ajataSatru)
		 94  maurya		
		 83  chandragupta	
		 76  mahavira	

The word "Greek" is also embarrassingly frequent, appearing half as
often as "Indian" and more frequently than vedic. 
		668  indian	
		356  greek		
		196  vedic
		178  aryan		

Thus the key predilection of the text is that more than a history of India,
it is a history of India from Europe.  All the authors are British. 

But the greek emphasis is perhaps not unexpected, since the authors were
all educated with a classical curriculum in the late 19th c. Britain, 
and part of the aim was to relate these histories to other historical
sources known to the west. 



---

The book is out of copyright, and the fulltext is available at several
places. I am working with the volume as available from archive.org
scanned from the volume at the Robarts library at the U. Toronto.

Excerpts

The Aryan migration theory

The Aryans are taken to have migrated from Eastern Europe, and there is
little physical evidence

	There is in fact no evidence that the ancestors of the Persians,
	Afghans, and Hindus passed through Turkestan at all. Nor is passage
	through the Caucasus probable...  The Albanian it is suggested has
	been driven westward through the Pindus range into its present
	position within historical times, the ancient Illyrians having in
	this area been swept away in the devastation wrought by a sequence of
	Roman invasions, initiated in the second century B.C. by Aemilius
	Paulus.  70-71

and the evidence adduced is largely linguistic: 

	If, as some scholars suppose, modern Albanian is the descendant in a
	very corrupt condition of ancient Thracian, and not of ancient
	Illyrian, the interrelation of the ancient branches of the Indo-
	Germanic family of languages can be outlined. ... Of the earliest
	movements of the tribes speaking Indo-Germanic languages which
	occupied the Iranian plateau and ultimately passed into Northern
	India, history has as yet nothing to say. 71-72


Dates for the Vedic Literature

It is considered by E. Meyer and by Oldenberg that the gods are proto-Iranian
gods, affording a proof of what has always seemed on other grounds most
probable, that the Indian and Iranian period was preceded by one in which the
Indo-Iranians still undivided enjoyed a common civilisation. This is
supported by the fact that the Avesta, which is doubtless a good deal later
than the date in question, still recognises a great god to whom Varuna's
epithet Asura is applied, that it knows a Verethrajan who bears the chief
epithet of Indra as Vritrahan, 'slayer of Vritra,' that It has a demon,
nAonhaithya, who may well be a pale reflex of the nAsatyas, and that the
Avestan Mithra is the Vedic Mitra. It is also possible that the gods
represent a period before the separation of Indians and Iranians, though this
would be less likely if it is true that the names of the Mitani princes
include true Iranian names.

Another and, at first sight, more promising attempt has been
made to fix a date from internal evidence. It has been argued
by Jacobi [*] on the strength of two hymns in the Rigveda that
the year then began with the summer solstice, and that at that
solstice the sun was in conjunction with the lunar mansion
Phalguni.  
[*] Festgruss an Roth, pp. 68 sq. = Indian Antiquary, vol. xxiii, pp. 154 sq.

Now the later astronomy shows that the lunar mansions were, in the sixth
century A.D., arranged so as to begin for purposes of reckoning with that
called Asvini, because at the vernal equinox at that date the sun was in
conjunction with the star [zeta] Piscium.  Given this datum, the precession
of the equinoxes allows us to calculate that the beginning of the year with
the summer solstice in Phalguni took place about 4000 b.C.  This argument
must be considered further in connexion with the dating of the next period of
Indian history; but, for the dating of the Rigveda, it is certain that no
help can be obtained from it.  It rests upon two wholly improbable
assumptions, first, that the hymns really assert that the year began at the
summer solstice, and, second, that the sun was then brought into any
connexion at all with the Nakshatras, for which there is no evidence
whatever.  The Nakshatras are, as their name indicates and as all the
evidence of the later Samhitas shows, lunar mansions pure and simple.

Max Muller's periods
In the absence of any trustworthy external evidence, we are
forced to rely on what is after all the best criterion, the development
of the civilisation and literature of the period. Max Muller
on the basis of this evidence divided the Vedic period into four: 

  	- Sutra literature, 600-200 RC, 
  	- Brahmanas, 800-600 B.C., 

  	- Mantra period, including the later portions of the Rigveda, 
		1000-800 B.C., 
	- Chhandas, covering the older and more primitive Vedic hymns,
		1200-1000 B.C. 

The exact demarcation did not claim, save as regards the latest period, any
special exactitude, and was indeed somewhat arbitrary.

The distance between the BrahmaNa texts with their insistence on the ritual,
and their matter-of-fact and indeed sordid view of the rewards of action in
this world, and the later doctrine of the uselessness of all mundane efibrt,
is bridged by the AraNyakas and the Upanishads which recognise
transmigration, if not pessimism, which definitely strive to examine the real
meaning of being, and are no longer content mth the explanation of sacrifices
and idle legends. It is unreasonable to deny that these texts must antedate
the rise of Buddhism, which, in part at least, is a legitimate development of
the doctrines of the Upanishads.

Working back from the death of Buddha c. 420BC
Now the death of Buddha falls in all probability somewhere within the second
decade of the fifth century before Christ: the older Upanishads can therefore
be dated as on the whole not later than 550 B.C. From that basis we must
reckon backwards, taking such periods as seem reasonable; and, in the absence
of any means of estimating these periods, we cannot have more than a
conjectural chronology. But it is not likely that the Brahmana period began
later than 800 B.C., and the oldest hymns of the Rigveda, such as those to
Ushas, may have been composed as early as 1200 RC. To carry the date further
back is impossible on the evidence at present available, and a lower date
would be necessary if we are to accept the view that the Avesta is really a
product of the sixth century B.C., as has been argued on grounds of some
though not decisive weight; for the coincidence in language between the
Avesta and the Rigveda is so striking as to indicate that the two languages
cannot have been long separated before they arrived at their present
condition.

The argument from literature and religion is supported also by the argument
from civilisation. The second period, that of the Samhitas, shows the
development of the primitive Vedic community into something more nearly
akin to the Hinduism which, as we learn from the Greek records, existed at
the time of the invasion of Alexander and the immediately succeeding
years. But we are still a long way from the full development of the system
as shown to us in the Arthashastra, that remarkable record of Indian polity
which is described in Chapter xix. The language also of the Vedic
literature is definitely anterior, though not necessarily much anterior, to
the classical speech as prescribed in the epoch-making work of Panini: even
the Siitras, which are undoubtedly later than the Brahmanas, show a freedom
which is hardly conceivable after the period of the fiill influence of
Panini; and Panini is dated with much plausibility not later than 300 BC.
[See Keith, Aitareya Aranyaka, pp. 21-5.]


Greek notions of India

The first Greek book about India was perhaps written in the latter part of
the sixth century b.c. by Scylax of Caryanda, a Greek sea-captain, whom King
Darius (522-486 b.c.) employed to explore the course of the Indus. The book
seems to have lain before Aristotle two centuries later, who quotes, as
coming from it, a statement that among the Indians the kings were held to be
of a superior race to their subjects. Scylax probably did not tell much of
his own experiences in descending the Indus, or we should have heard of his
book in connexion with the voyage of Alexander.  He probably preferred to
astonish his countrymen with travellers' tales—stories of people who used
their enormous feet as sunshades {Skiapodes), of people who wrapped
themselves up in their own ears {Otoliknoi or Enotokoitoi), of people with
one eye, and so on, with which the Greek tradition about India thus started
and which it retained to the end.

These stories, it is now recognised, correspond with statements in the old
Indian books about peoples on the confines of the Indian world, and Scylax
may therefore very well have really heard them from Indians and accepted them
in simple faith. p.393-4

The peacock, which was introduced into Greece during the second half of the
fifth century RC, retained in his designations evidences both of his Indian
origin {raws) and of the route —- via the Persian empire—- by which he had
been conveyed; and it seems to be more than a coincidence that the only
Buddhist mention of Babylon is in connexion with a story concerning the
importation of this magnificent bird. 396

Three companions of Alexander
Of the companions of Alexander, three men chiefly enriched the Greek
conception of India by their writings.  398

1. 'Nearchus, a Cretan by extraction, whose home was in Macedonia, where
he had been a friend in youth of Alexander's.  This was the man whom
Alexander put in command of the fleet which explored the coast between the
Indus and the Persian gulf, and Nearchus later on gave his own account of
this expedition to the world.  His book also contained a good deal of
incidental information about India.  He appears from the fragments quoted to
have been an honest reporter, who took pains to verify the stories which were
told him. 

2. Onesicritus from the Greek island of Aegina, who regarded the Cynic
philosopher Diogenes as his master, a man with some practical knowledge of
sea-craft, since Alexander made him pilot of the royal vessel down the
Indus. Onesicritus took part in the expedition of Nearchus, and he too
afterwards wrote a book about it and about India.  Strabo considered him
untruthful, and he has generally a bad reputation with modern scholars,
though this unfavourable judgment has been seriously challenged. 399

3. Aristobulus, a Greek probably from the Chalcidic peninsula, who not
only accompanied Alexander through India, but was entrusted with certain
commissions, perhaps not military ones.  Aristobulus wrote his book long
afterwards, in extreme old age.  His interest was predominantly geographical,
not military ; yet his book seems to have been adversely affected by the
rhetorical fashion and perhaps by the Alexander myth which had already begun
to take popular shape at the time when he wrote.

The books written by the companions of Alexander or derived from their
accounts were supplemented in the third century by the books in which the
European ambassadors sent by the Hellenistic kings to India told what they
heard and saw. It is very odd that with such opportunities none of the
ambassadors seems to have produced anything substantial except Megasthenes.


Mineral, vegetable, and animal wonders
As to minerals, India was the land of gems and gold.  In the book of
Pliny's Natural History which deals with precious stones (Book xxxvii) a
great .  many are said to be products of India. It is often doubtful what
stone is intended by Pliny's description, but one can recognise diamonds,
opals, and agate amongst those enumerated.  The ultimate source of
information would here, of course, not be a literary one, but the practical
knowledge of merchants. As to gold, Nearchus and Megasthenes confirmed the
account given by Herodotus of the ants as big as foxes which dug up gold. 403

Nearchus, honest man that he was, admitted that he had never seen one of
these ants, but he had seen their skins, which were brought to the
Macedonian camp.  Megasthenes in repeating the story with minor variations
added the useful piece of information that the country the gold came from
was the country of the Derdae (in Sanskrit Darad or DArada ; modern
Dardistan in Kashmir).

Among the mineral wonders of the land Megasthenes seems also to have
reckoned sugar-candy, which he took to be a sort of crystal a strange sort
which, on being ground between the teeth, proved to be 'sweeter than figs
or honey'. He wrote down too what his Indian informants told him of a river
Silas among the mountains of the north in which all substances went to the
bottom like stone.

In the vegetable realm, the Greeks noticed the two annual harvests, the
winter and summer one, the sign of an astonishing fertility.  They knew
that rice and millet were sown in the summer, wheat and barley in the
winter, and Aristobulus described the cultivation of rice in enclosed
sheets of water.  They saw trees, which the generative power of the Indian
soil endowed with a strange capacity of self-propagation — the branches
curving to the ground to become themselves new trunks, till a single tree
became a pillared tent, under whose roof of broad leaves a troop of
horsemen could find shade from the noonday heat.

Among the plants two especially interested them. One was the sugarcane, the
reeds that make honey without the agency of bees.  Megasthenes seems to
have attempted a scientific explanation of its sweet juice. It was due to
the water which it absorbed from the soil being so warmed by the sun's
heat, that the plant was virtually cooked as it grew.  The other plant was
the cottonplant, yielding vegetable wool. Some of it the Macedonians used
uncarded as stuffing for saddles and suchlike.  Precious spices, of course,
also and strange poisons were associated in the Greek mind with India.  As
to the latter, Aristobulus was told that a law obtaining among the Indians
pronounced death upon any man revealing a new poison, unless he at the same
time revealed a remedy for it; if he did both, he received a reward from
the king.

Among the animals of India, it was the elephants, the monkeys, and the snakes
which especially drew the attention of the Greeks.  The elephants, of course,
showed them a type of animal unlike anything they had ever seen. Their size
must have accorded with the impression of vastness made by the rivers and the
trees of India. And to this was added their extraordinary form with the
serpentine proboscis. Megasthenes gave an account of the way in which wild
elephants were captured, agreeing closely with the practice of to-day.  The
longevity of the elephant was also a fact which the Greeks discovered, though
Onesicritus accepted from some informant the extravagant estimate of 300
years for an elephant's life.  'They are so teachable, that they can learn to
throw stones at a mark and to use arms, also to sew beautifully.'  If any
animal has a wise spirit, it is the elephant. Some of them, when their
drivers have been killed in battle, have picked them up themselves and
carried them to burial ; some have defended them as they lay ; some have
saved those who fell off at their own peril. Once when an elephant killed his
driver in a rage he died of remorse and despair.'  'It is a very great thing
to possess an elephant chariot. A woman who receives an elephant as a present
from her lover acquires great prestige,' and any moral frailty she might show
under such an inducement was condoned. 405

The monkeys too were a species of creature which naturally fascinated the
foreigners.  Different kinds are described.  'Among the Prasioi (the people
of Magadha),' says a late writer, copying from Megasthenes, 'there is a breed
of apes human in intelligence, about the size of Hyrcanian dogs to look at,
with a natural fringe above the forehead.  One might take them for ascetics,
if one did not know.  They are bearded like satyrs, and their tail is like a
lion's.... At the city of Latage they come in crowds to the region outside
the gates and eat the boiled rice which is put out for them from the king's
house —- every day a banquet is placed conveniently for them-— and when they
have had their fill they go back to their haunts in the forest, in perfect
order, and do no damage to anything in the neighbourhood.' 
[Megasth. Frag. ll = Ael. "Nat. Anim. xvi, 10.]


The same writer takes from Megasthenes an account of the apes like satyrs
which inhabited the glens of the Himalayas. * When they hear the noise of
huntsmen and the baying of hounds, they run up to the top of the cliffs with
incredible swiftness and repel attack by rolling stones down upon their
assailants. They are hard to catch. Only occasionally, at rare intervals,
some of them are brought to the country of the Prasioi, and these are either
sick ones or pregnant females.' [2 Ael. Nat. Anim. xvi, 21.]

The forests
on the upper Jhelum (Hydaspes, Vitasta), one of the companions
of Alexander recorded, were full of apes, and he was told that
they were caught by the huntsmen putting on trousers in view of
the apes, and leaving other pairs of trousers behind, smeared on
the inside with birdlime, which the imitative animals would not
fail to put on in their turn! [3 Strabo xv, C. 699.]

The snakes of India were a third arresting species in the animal world. And
here again it was the size, in the case of pythons, which impressed the
Europeans. Some were so large, Megasthenes wrote, as to swallow bulls whole.
The envoys coming from Abhisara to the Macedonian camp asserted boldly that
their raja kept two serpents, 80 and 140 cubits long respectively (about 160
and 280 feet)![Onesicr. Frag. 7 = Strabo xv, C. 698.]

 On the other hand, Nearchus knew that the smaller poisonous
snakes were the more dangerous, and described how life in India was burdened
with the fear of finding them anywhere, 'in tents, in vessels, in walls.'
Sometimes they infested a particular house to the point of making it
uninhabitable. The charmers who went about the country were supposed to know
how to cure snake-bites. There was really indeed very little for a doctor to
do in India except to cure snake-bites, since diseases were so rare among
Indians—so at least, as we shall see, the Greeks believed.
[Nearchus, Frag. 15 = Strabo xv, C. 706.]







Contents

Chapter I : The sub-continent of India 
	By Sir Halford J. Mackinder, M.A., M.P., Reader in
	Geography in the University of London, formerly
	Student of Christ Church, Oxford

The four sub-continents of Asia 					1
Ceylon; Colombo, the strategic centre of British
	sea-power in the Indian Ocean 					1
The Malabar and Coromandel coasts; the Western and
	Eastern Ghats 							2
The Carnatic ; Travancore ; Cochin 					3
The Gap of Coimbatore or Palghat 					3
The plateau between the Ghats ; Mysore 					4
Climate of the southern extremity of India 				4
Madras ; some causes of the comparative isolation of southern India  	5
Burma, the connecting link between the Far East and the Middle East 	5
The geography of Burma 							6
The geography of Bengal 						8
Calcutta 								9
Countries of the Himalayan fringe 					10, 25
Valley of the Brahmaputra 						11
The plain of the Ganges and Jumna 					12
Central India 								15
The situation of Bombay 						16
The Maratha country ; Hyderabad ; the Deccan plateau 			18
The Central Provinces ; Baroda 						19
Kathiawar and Cntch 							20
The Himalayan barrier 							20
Bajputana; historical importance of the great Indian desert 
	and the Delhi gateway 						20
The north-west frontier 						26
The plain of the Indus 							27,31
Routes leading into N.W. India 						28
Kashmir 								32
Gilgit ; Chitral ; the Karakoram ; the Hindu Rush 			33
Lateral communication between the Khyber and Bolan routes 		33
The Hindu Kush and the Indus as boundaries between India and Iran 	34
Summary of the principal physical features of the sub-continent  	34


Chapter II
	By E. J. Rapson, M. A., Professor of Sanskrit in the 
	University of Cambridge, and Fellow of St John's College

A. PEOPLES AND LANGUAGES
    Varieties of race, speech, and culture 				37
    Western and eastern invaders 					38
    Natural and ethnographical divisions 				40
    The seven chief physical types 					40
    The four families of speech 					48
    The caste-system 							53

B. SOURCES OF HISTORY
    Prehistoric archaeology 						56
    Ancient literatures 						56
    Foreign writers 							58
    Inscribed monuments and coins 					60
    The ancient alphabets 						62
    Progress of research 						62

Chapter III : The Aryans
	By P. Giles, Litt.D., Master of Emmanuel College, and Reader in
	Comparative Philology in the University of Cambridge

The Indo-European languages 65, 					71
The Wiros and their original habitat 					66
Their migrations 							70
Evidence of the inscriptions of Boghaz-koi 				72
Iranians and Indo- Aryans 						73
Aryan names in the inscriptions of Mesopotamia 				76

Chapter IV : The age of the Rigveda
	By A. Berriedale Keith, D.C.L., D.Litt., Regius Professor
	of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology in the University of
	Edinburgh, formerly Scholar of Balliol College, Oxford

The hymns of the Rigveda  						77,108
Geography 								79
Fauna; peoples 								81
Social organisation 							88
Origins of the caste system . 						92
Political organisation 							94
Warlike and peaceful avocations 					98
Dress, food, and amusements 						101
Religion 								103
The beginnings of philosophy 						107
Chronology of Vedic literature 						110

Chapter V : later saMhitas, brAhmaNas, AraNyakas, and upanishads
	By Professor A. Berriedale Keith

Vedic literature after the period of the Rigveda 			114
Extension of Aryan civilisation to the Middle Country     		116
Peoples of the Middle Country . 					118
The more eastern peoples 						122
Changes in social conditions 125, 					135
Grovernment and the administration of justice 				130
Industry ; social life ; the arts and sciences 				135
Religion and philosophy 						141
Language 								146
Criteria of date 							147

Chapter VI : The history of the Jains
	By Jarl Charpentier, Ph.D., University of Upsala

Jainism in its relation to Brahmanism and Buddhism  			150
The tirthakaras or ' prophets ' ; Parsva 				153
Mahavira 								155
Jains and Buddhists 							160
Mahavira's rivals, G-osala and Jamali 					162-3
The Jain church after the death of Mahavira 				164
The great schism : Svetambaras and Digambaras       			165
Settlements in Western India 						166
Organisation of the religious and lay communities 			168
Blanks in Jain ecclesiastical history 					169

Chapter VII : The early history of the Buddhists
	By T. W. Rhys Davids, LL.D., Ph.D., D.Sc, formerly Professor of
	Pali and Buddhist Literature at University College, London, and
	Professor of Comparative Religion in the University of Manchester

Pre-Buddhistic 								171
India in the Buddha's time ; the clans 					174
The kingdoms :
    Kosala								178
    Magadha								182
    Avanti 								185
    The VaMsas 								187
The first great gap 							188
Chandagutta 								190
Age of the authorities used 						192
Growth of Buddhist literature from the time of Buddha down to Asoka 	197

Chapter VIII : Economic conditions - Early Buddhist literature
	By Mrs C. A. F. Rhys Davids, M.A., D.Litt., Fellow of
	University College, London

Rural economy 								198
Cities ; villages ; the land 						200
Agriculture 								203
Labour and industry 							205
Social conditions 							208
Trade and commerce 							210
Trade centres and routes 						212
Methods of exchange and prices 						216
Securities and interest 						218
General conclusions 							219

Chapter IX : Period of the Sutras, Epics, and law-books
	By R Washburn Hopkins, PLD., LL.D., Professor of Sanskrit
	and Comparative Philology in Yale University

Language of the later Brahman literature 				220
Social conditions as reflected in the Brahman and Buddhist books . 	221
Outlines of chronology 							222
Causes of the wider political outlook 					225

Chapter X : Family life and Social customs from The Sutras
	By Professor E. Washburn Hopkins

The Sutra literature 							227
Grihya Sutras 								228
Oblations to spirits and gods 						229
Rites to avert disaster and disease 					231
Substitution of images of meal for sacrificial animals   		232
Marriage ceremonies 							233
Caste and family 							234
Contents and arrangement of the Grihya Sutras 				236
The life represented is rural, not urban 				237
Minor superstitions 							238
Arya and Sudra ; Dharma Sutras 						240
The beginnings of civil and criminal law ; inheritance      		243
Duties of the king 							244
Taxes ; status of women ; ordeals 					247
Legal rates of interest 						248
Religion and philosophy 						248
Relative ages of the Sutras 						249

Chapter XI: Princes and peoples of the epic poems
	By Professor E. Washburn Hopkins

The two chief varieties of epic poetry 					251
Sources of the Mahabharata 						252
Narrative and didactic interpolations 					255
The characters partly historical and partly mythical      		257
Date of the poem in its present form 					258
Features common to the Mahabharata and the Eamayania    		259
Social conditions in the Sanskrit epics and in Buddhist 
	works of the same period 					259
The story of the Mahabharata 						262
The Mahabharata and the Eamayafjia contrasted 				264
Earlier and later moral ideals in the Mahabharata 			265
Knights, priests, commoners, and slaves 				266
The king and his ministers 						271
Religious and philosophical views of the epics 				272
Peoples traditionally engaged in the great war 				274
The genealogies 							275

Chapter XII : Growth of Law and Legal institutions
	By Professor E. Washburn Hopkins

The chief codes— Manu, VishNu, YAjnavalkya, and NArada    		277-9
Growth of the distinction between religious precepts and law    	280
Growth of the distinction between civil and criminal law, 
	and the first enumeration of legal titles 			281
Ordeals 								282
Dharna 									284
Punishments 								284
Development of civil law 						286
Interest; wages; property 						287
The king as ruler in peace and war 					288
The king as judge 							290
Hereditary traditional law and custom 					291
Infant marriage ; the levirate ; the status of women      		292
The law-books and the Arthaeastra 					293-4

Chapter XIII : The Puarnas
	By Professor E. J. Rapson

The classical definition of a PuraNa 					296
Kshatriya literature 							297,302
Scriptures of the later Hinduism 					298
Critical study of the Puranas 						299
The Puranas and Upapuranas 						300
Their chronological and geographical conceptions 			303
Genealogies partly legendary and partly historical 			304
Common traditional elements in Vedic literature and the PuraNas . 	306
Traditional period of the great war between Kurus and PaNDavas    	306
The Purus 								307
Thelkshvakus 								308
Kings or suzerains of Magadha :
	Brihadrathas 							309
	Pradyotas, originally kings of Avanti 				310
	Sisunagas 							311
	Nandas 								313
Contemporary dynasties in Northern and Central India    		315
Later kings of Magadha and suzerains of N. India:
	The later Nandas, Mauryas, Sungas, Kanvas, and Andhras    	317

Chapter XIV : Persian dominions in Northern India
	[down to the time of Alexander's invasion]

	by A. V. Williams Jackson, Ph.D., LL.D., Professor of
	Indo-Iranian Languages in Columbia University

Prehistoric connexions between Persia and India 			319
Common Indo-Iranian domains 						321
Evidence of the Veda and the Avesta 					322
Avestan, Old Persian, Greek, and modem designations 
	of Persian provinces south of the Hindu Kush 			326
Early commerce between India and Babylon        			329
The eastern campaigns of Cyrus 						329
Cambyses 								333
Darius      								334
Xerxes 									340
Decadence of the Achaemenian empire 					340
The conquest of Persia by Alexander 					341
Extent of Persian influence in India 					341

Note to Chapter XIV : Ancient Persian Coins in India
	By Dr George Macdonald

The rarity of Persian gold coins in India explained by the low 
	ratio of gold to silver 					342
The attribution of punch-marked Persian silver coins to India doubtful 	343


Chapter XV : Alexander the Great
	By E. R. Bevan, M. A., Hon. Fellow of New College, Oxford

The Kabul valley and the Punjab in the fourth century B.C      		345
Alexander's conquest of the Persian empire; settlements in 
	Seistan, Kandahar, and the upper Kabul valley ; 
	invasion of Bactria    						347-8
The rAja of TakshaSila and the Paurava king (Porus)      		349
Invasion of India from the upper Kabul valley 				350
Hill tribes beyond the N.W. frontier 					352
Occupation of the lower Kabul valley 					354
Siege and capture of Aornus 						356
The crossing of the Indus 						357
Reception at TakshaSila                					358
The Paurava king 							359,368,383
The battle of the Hydaspes 						360
Foundation of Nicaea and Bucephala 					368
Flight of the second Paurava king, and occupation of his kingdom  	370
Capture of Sangala 							371
Saubhuti (Sophytes) 							371
The Hyphasis, the eastern limit of Alexander's conquests    		372
Return to the Hydaspes ; expedition to the Indus delta      		373
Defeat of the Malavas 							375
Musicanus 								377
Return of Craterus through Kandahar and Seistan 			379
Pattala 								379
Return of Alexander through G-edrosia 					380
Return of Nearchus by sea 						381
Alexander's Indian satrapies 						383
Consequences of the invasion , 						384

Note to Chapter XV : Ancient Greek Coins in India
	By Dr George Macdonald

Athenian and Macedonian types 						386
Sophytes 								388
Coins attributed to Alexander 						388
Double darics 								390


Chapter XVI : India in early Greek and Latin literature
	By E. R. Bevan, M.A.

The early sources of information 					391
Scylax of Caryanda; Hecataens of Miletus; Herodotus; Ctesias of
Cnidus 									393
Nearchus; Onesicritus; Clitarchus 					398-9
Megasthenes; Da'imachus; Patrocles 					399-400
Geography and physical phenomena 					400
The mineral, vegetable, and animal world 				403
Ethnology and mythology 						407
Social divisions according to Megasthenes 				409
His description of Pataliputra 						411
Manners and customs ; laws 						412
Marriage ; suttee ; disposal of the dead ; slavery 			414
The king; royal festivals; government ofl&cials 			416
Industries 								418
Brahmans; ascetics; philosophers          				419
Deities 								422
Fabulous creatures 							422
Pearls ; Southern India and Ceylon 					423
Later sources of information— Apollodorus of Artemita; Eratosthenes;
	Alexander Polyhistor ; Strabo; Pliny; Arrian; Aelian    	425
Greek merchantmen 							425


Chapter XVII : Hellenic kingdoms of Syria, Bactria, and Parthia
	By George Macdonald, C.B., LL.D., F.B.A., First Assistant
	Secretary Scottish Education Department, formerly Scholar
	of Balliol College, Oxford

Greek and native rulers of the Kabul valley and 
	N.W. India after Alexander 					427
Chandragupta 								429
The Indian expedition of Seleucus 					430
Relations of Syria with the Maurya empire 				432
Foundation of the kingdoms of Bactria and Parthia      			434
Diodotus 								436
Arsaces 								438
Euthydemus 								440,442
Invasion of India by Antiochus III 					441
Sophagasenus 								442
Demetrius 								444
Eucratides 446, 							454
Euthydemus II ; Demetrius II; Agathocles; Pantaleon; Antimachus 	447
Heliocles and Laodice 							453
Plato 									456
Parthian invasion of Bactria 						457
Scythian invasion of Bactria 						458
Heliocles 								459
Key to Plates I-IV 							462


Chapter XVIII : Chandragupta, founder of the Maurya empire
	By F. W. Thomas, M.A, Ph.D., Librarian of the India Office,
	formerly Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge

Characteristics of the Maurya period and authorities for its history 	467
N. W. India before and after Alexander 					468
Agrammes, Xandrames, or Dhana-Nanda 					469
Nanda and Chandragupta 							470
Date of the overthrow of Nanda 						471
Plot of the Mudrardkshasa 						471
Chandragupta and Seleucus 						472
Megasthenes 								472
Rule of Chandragupta and extent of his dominions 			473

Chapter XIX : Political and social organisation of the Maurya Empire
	By Dr F. W. Thomas
Internal conditions:
    The land 								474
    Towns and fortifications 						475
    The imperial capital 						477
    The people 								477
    Trade 								478
    State of society 							479
    Literature 								482
    Language 								483
    Religion 								483
    Law 								485
Government and administration:
    Civil administration founded on village autonomy      		486
    The army 								489
    Foreign policy 							490
    Tribal oligarchies 							491
    Monarchies 								491

Chapter XX : Asoka, Imperial patron of Buddhism
	By Dr F. W. Thomas

Bindusara  								495
Events and principal enactments in Ashoka's reign 			495
Religious and other foundations 497, 					501
Buddhist Council of Pataliputra and religious missions  		498
Duration of Asoka's reign and his family history 			499
Chronology 								502
Asoka's principles and personal action 					504
His admonitions 							507
His ordinances and institutions 					508
The personality of Asoka as revealed in his edicts 			509
His successors 								511
Probable division of the empire after the reign of Samprati  		512


Chapter XXI : Indian native states after the Maurya Empire
	By Professor E. J. Rapson

The peoples of India in the inscriptions of Asoka 			514
Internal strife and foreign invasions the result of the 
	downfall of imperial rule 					516
Routes connecting Pataliputra with the north-western and 
	western frontiers 						516
Kingdoms on the central route 						517
The Sungas 								517
Feudatories of the Sungas 						523
Kosala and Magadha 							527
Independent states 							528
Rise of the Andhras 							529
Conquest of Ujjain 							531
Conquest of Vidisha 							533
The Kalingas 								534
Key to Plate V 								538

Chapter XXII : Successors of Alexander the Great
	By Professor E. J. Rapson

The Yavana invasions 							540
Extension of Yavana power along the routes from Kabul    		542
Stages on the route leading to Pataliputra 				543
Yavana invasion of the Midland Country 					544
Baetrian and Indian coins 						545
The house of Euthydemus :
    Demetrius; Pantaleon and Agathocles; Antimachus 			546
    Apollodotus; Menander 						547
    The kingdom of Sakala 						549
    Dominions of this house after the conquests of Eucratidcs and
    Heliocles 								551
    The families of Menander and Apollodotus 				552
    The Saka conquests completed in the reign of Azes I     		553
The house of Eucratides :
    Eucratides 								554
    The kingdom of Kapisa 						555
    Heliocles 								556
    His successors at Pushkalavati 					557
    Antialcidas 							558
    Archebius his successor at Takshasila 				559
    Saka conquest of Pushkalavati and Takshasila in the reign of Maues 	559
    Successors of Eucratides in the upper Kabul valley      		560
    Hermaeus the last Yavana king 					560
    Pahlava conquest of the upper Kabul valley 				561


Chapter XXIII : Scythian and Parthian invaders
	By Professor E. J. Rapson

The Saka invaders came from Seistan and Kandahar into 
	the country of the lower Indus 					563
Sakas in the inscriptions of Darius 					564
Migration of the Yueh-ohi 						565
Bactria overwhelmed and Parthia invaded by ^akas     			566
Being checked by Parthia the ^akas invaded India      			567
The title 'Great King of Kings' 					567
Pahlava and Saka suzerains in eastern Iran and India   			569
The date of Maues, the conqueror of Pushkalavati and Takshasila  	570
Extension of his conquests by Azes I, who may be the 
	founder of the Vikrama era 					571
Azilises ; Azes II ; Vonones 						572
The family of Vonones 							673
Saka satraps 								574
The strategoi 							677
Grondopharnes 								577
Pacores 								680
The transition from Pahlava to Kushana rule in Taksha9ila       	580
V'ima Kadphises 							581
The date of Kanishka 							583
Summary of numismatic evidence for the history of the Yavana, Saka,
	and Pahlava invaders of India 					586

Chapter XXIV : Early histoky op Southern India
	By L. D. Barnett, M.A., LittD., Keeper of the Department of
	Oriental Printed Books and MSS. in the British Museum, formerly
	Scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge

The Dravidian peoples 							593
The Tamil kingdoms 							594
The Andhras or Telugus 							598
The Kalingas 								601
Maharashtra, etc 							602

Chapter XXV : The early history of Ceylon
	By Dr L. D. Barnett

Sources of history 							604
The Vaddas 								604
Other races in Ceylon 							605
Earliest colonisation 							605
History from Vijaya to the advent of Buddhism 				607
From Devanampiya Tissa to Kutakauna Tissa 				608


Chapter XXVI : Monuments of Ancient India
	By Sir J. H. Marshall, K.C.I.E., Litt. D., Director 
	General of Archaeology in India, formerly Scholar of 
	King's College, Cambridge

Prehistoric antiquities 						612
The age of iron 							615
The mounds at Lauriya Nandangarh; the walls of the old city
	 of Rajagriha 							616
The earliest buildings 							617
Monuments of the Maurya epoch 						618
Persian influence 							621
Contrast between Indian and foreign workmanship also 
	seen in the minor arts 						622
Development of art in the Sunga period 					623
Bharhut 								624
Besnagar 								625
More advanced style in the railing at Buddh Gaya 			625
Sanchi 									627
Interpretation of the reliefs 						629
Varieties of style 							630
The pre-Kushana sculptures at Mathura 					632
Decadence of art 							633
Chaityas 								633
BhAja; Kondane; Pitalkhora; Ajanta; Bedsa; Nasik; kArli     		635
vihAras 								637
The caves of Orissa 							638
Sculptures in the caves 						640
Paintings of the Early Indian school 					642
Terracottas 								643
Foreign influence in Indian art 					644
Coins 									645
Architecture 								646
Minor arts 								646
The Gandhara School 							648
Greek and Indian ideals 						648

List of Abbreviations 							651
Bibliographies 								653
Chronology 								697
Index 									705



Volumes in the Cambridge History of India
v. 1. Ancient India, edited by E.J. Rapson.
v. 3. Turks and Afghans, edited by W. Haig
v. 4. The Mughul period, planned by W. Haig, edited by R. Burn
v. 5. British India, 1497-1858, edited by H.H. Dodwell
v. 6. The Indian Empire, 1858-1918, with chapters on the development of
	administration, 1818-1858, edited by H.H. Dodwell