BOOK III. ambition of permanently improving their condition. A man who has amassed a fortune by his own labours is not likely to have a turn for literature or the fine arts; and if he had, his collections would be dispersed at his death, and his sons would have to begin their toils anew, without time for acquiring that refinement in taste or elevation of sentiment which is brought about by the improved education of successive generations. Hence, although rapid rise and sudden fortunes are more common in India than in Europe, they produce no permanent change in the society; all remains on the same dead level, with no conspicuous objects to guide the course of the community, and no barriers to oppose to the arbitrary will of the ruler.* Under such discouragements we cannot be surprised at the stagnation and decline of Hindú civilisation. The wonder is, how it could ever struggle against them, and how it attained to such a pitch as exists even at this moment. At what time it had reached its highest point it is not easy to say. Perhaps in institutions and moral * The great military chiefs may be said to be exceptions to this rule, for they not unfrequently transmit their lands to their children but they are, for purposes of improvement, the worst people into whose hands property could fall. As their power rests on mercenary soldiers, they have no need to call in the aid of the people, like our barons; and as each lives on his own lands at a distance from his equals, they neither refine each other by their intercourse, nor those below them by the example of their social habits. character it was at its best just before Alexander but learning was much longer in reaching its acme. The most flourishing period for literature is represented by Hindú tradition to be that of Vicrama Ditya, a little before the beginning of our æra; but some of the authors who are mentioned as the ornaments of that prince's court appear to belong to later times; and the good writers, whose works are extant, extend over a long space of time, from the second century before Christ to the eighth of the Christian æra. Mathematical science was in most perfection in the fifth century after Christ; but works of merit, both in literature and science, continued to be composed for some time after the Mahometan invasion. CHAP. XI. BOOK THE first information we receive on Hindú history is from a passage in Menu, which gives us to infer that their residence was at one time between the rivers Seraswati (Sersooty) and Drishadwati (Caggar), a tract about 100 miles to the north-west of Delhi, and in extent about sixty-five miles long, and from twenty to forty broad. That land, Menu says, was called Bramháverta, because it was frequented by gods; and the custom preserved by immemorial tradition in that country is pointed out as a model to the pious.* The country between that tract and the Jamna, and all to the north of the Jamna and Ganges, including North Behár, is mentioned, in the second place, under the name of Bramarshi; and Bramins born within that tract * Menu, Book II. v. 17, 18. This tract is also the scene of the adventures of the first princes, and the residence of the most famous sages. WILSON, Preface to Vishnu Purána, p. lxvii. are pronounced to be suitable teachers of the CHAP. several usages of men.* This, therefore, may be set down as the first country acquired after that on the Seraswati. The Puránas pass over these early stages unnoticed, and commence with Ayodha (Oud), about the centre of the last mentioned tract. It is there that the solar and lunar races have their origin; and from thence the princes of all other countries are sprung. From fifty to seventy generations of the solar race are only distinguished from each other by purely mythological legends. After these comes Ráma, who seems entitled to take his place in real history. I. of Ráma. His story †, when stripped of its fabulous and ro- Expedition mantic decorations, merely relates that Ráma possessed a powerful kingdom in Hindostan; and that he invaded the Deckan and penetrated to the island of Ceylon, which he conquered. The first of these facts there is no reason to question; and we may readily believe that Ráma led an expedition into the Deckan; but it is highly improbable that, if he was the first, or even among the first invaders, he should have conquered Ceylon. If he did so, he could not have lived, as is generally supposed, before the compilation of the Vedas; for, even in the time of Menu's Institutes, there were no settlements of Hindú conquerors in † See p. 173. * Menu, Book II. v. 19, 20. IV. BOOK the Deckan. It is probable that the poets who have celebrated Ráma, not only reared a great fabric on a narrow basis, but transferred their hero's exploits to the scene which was thought most interesting in their own day. War of the "Mahá Bhárat." The undoubted antiquity of the "Ramáyana" is the best testimony to the early date of the event which it celebrates; yet, as no conspicuous invasion of the Deckan could have been undertaken without great resources, Ráma must have lived after Hindú civilisation had attained a considerable pitch. After Ráma, sixty princes of his race ruled in succession over his dominions; but, as we hear no more of Ayodha (Oud), it is possible that the kingdom (which at one time was called Coshala) may have merged in another; and that the capital was transferred from Oud to Canouj. The war celebrated in the "Mahá Bhárat" is the next historical event that deserves notice. It is a contest between the lines of Pándu and of Curu (two branches of the reigning family) for the territory of Hastinapúra (probably a place on the Ganges, north-east of Delhi, which still bears the ancient name). The family itself is of the lunar race, but the different parties are supported by numerous allies, and some from very remote quarters. There seem to have been many states in India (six, at least, in the one tract upon the Ganges *); * Hastinapúra, Mattra, Panchála (part of Oud and the lower Doáb), Benares, Magada, and Bengal. (Oriental Magazine, |