part of Hindûstân where the eastern end of the Vindhya range sinks into the plain, an immense tract of forest stretches away southwards into the Deckan, till it reaches the river Godâveri.

The rivers of India are numerous and copious. Those of Hindûstân have their sources in the Himalaya and Vindhya mountains. From the former descend the Indus and its five tributaries, namely, the Jelûm, the Chenâb, the Râvi, the Beyah, and the Sutlej 4; the Jumnah, the Ganges, the Cusi, and the Brahmaputra, and their tributaries. The latter sends forth the Chumbul, the Betwah, the Sôn, and others, all of which are received in the Jumnah and the Ganges. The rivers of the Deckan, inferior in magnitude to those of Hindûstân, pour their waters into the sea on either coast of the peninsula, having their sources chiefly in the Vindhya and the western Ghâts. On the west coasts are the mouths of the Nerbudda and the Tapti, the only streams of magnitude on this side; on the east coast are those of the Mahânuddi, the Godâveri, the Kistna, the Palar, the Pannar, the Caveri, and others of less dimensions.

The climate of India is of course various, owing to its extent and its difference of elevation; but it is in general hotter than that of any part of Europe. The annual quantity of rain that falls in India is far beyond that of any country in this continent. The rain is periodical, and is brought by the monsoon, or south-west wind from the Indian ocean. On the west coast and in Hindûstân the rainy season is from May till October, the hottest part of the year, and it is introduced by tremendous storms. At that time the Ganges and other rivers overflow and flood the country, the greater part of Bengal, for example, becoming like one huge lake. Hence in the history we shall often find military operations interrupted by this season. The height of the Ghâts and of the table-land prevent the eastern coast from feeling the early effects of the monsoon, and it is not till the month of October, when the monsoon blows from the north-east, that it receives its supply of rain.

The vegetable productions of India are numerous and valuable. The teak used in ship-building, the wonderful banyan-tree (Ficus Indicus), the cocoa, the various palms and acacias, the bamboo which attains to such a prodigious size, and many other useful trees, are abundant. Numerous mulberries yield food to the silk-worm, the cotton-tree and cotton-shrub are every where to be seen, the ebony, the sandal, and other ornamental woods grow abundantly. India has also, from the most remote ages, been famed for its ginger, pepper, and other spices; the indigo derives its name from India; it is the native country of the sugar-cane.

Rice ranks among the most celebrated of the natural productions of India; but it is an error to suppose that it is the principal food of the bulk of the people. Such it is, no doubt, in Bengal, part of Bahar, and the coast of the peninsula ; but rice cannot be cultivated without abundance of moisture; and on the high lands of Central India and the Deckan, for example, it is only a luxury; the

4 Hydaspes, Acesines, Hydraotes, Hyphasis, were the names given by Alexander's Greek followers to the four of these rivers which they saw; for they did not come to the Sutlej. The Sanscrit names, from which three of those are formed, are Vitastâ, Chandrabhâgâ, Acrôvatî, and Vipâsâ.

ordinary food of the people of Hindûstân being wheat, and that of the people of the Deckan the grains named Jowâr,, the Dûrra of the Arabs (Holcus sorgum), and Bâjra, small grains which grow in bunches on reedy stems. Mangos, melons, and all sorts of gourds, plantains, pine-apples, and other sweet fruits grow in the greatest plenty.

Among the animals of India the elephant is the most famous. It was formerly employed much in war, but now is only used for the carriage of baggage. Camels are also numerous in India, but the Indian horses are small, and of inferior quality; they are only used for riding. The beast of draught is the ox, which is used alike for the plough, the cart, and the carriage. Its colour is white, its form is slender, and it can travel nearly as fast as a horse.

India does not produce the precious metals, but its iron has always been famous. Diamonds, and other precious stones, are found there in great quantities. The finest pearls in the world are obtained from the beds near the isle of Ceylon. Rocksalt is found in the Punjâb, and saltpetre is obtained in great quantities in various places.

CHAPTER II.

Early Inhabitants of India - Hindoos-Their ColoniesReligion Sects - Morals - Transmigration of SoulsBuddhists-Jains-Sciences and Arts-Laws of ManuCastes--Government.

In our inquiries into the history of any ancient country, one of the first questions which presents itself, and one which rarely can be answered satisfactorily is, who were its original inhabitants, and whence did they come? With respect to India, this question cannot be answered more satisfactorily than elsewhere. From its nature and position, it is manifest that it must have been one of the earliest abodes of the human race; and we appear to have some reason to think that here, as in so many other parts of the world, its first occupants were an inferior race, who were invaded and overcome by a more highly endowed portion of our species.

In

In the forests and dales of the Vindhya mountains, in the great forest district stretching from Bahar in Hindûstân into the Deckan, and along its eastern coast, are still to be met tribes differing essentially from the more cultivated inhabitants of India. They are known by various names. the west of Bengal and Bahar they are called Cĉls, in the great forest and in the part of the Vindhya mountains adjoining it, they are named Gonds; thence westwards in that chain, Bheels; and towards Gûzerât, Coolies. In the southern woods of the Deckan they are known by the name of Cólarees, and a general name for them is Parias, that is, Mountaineers. They are of small but active forms, and dark complexion, with something of the negro in their features. They go nearly naked, are armed with bows and spears, and plunder wherever they can. They have a superstition of their own, though they worship one or two of the Hindoo gods. Spirituous liquors are sought by them with avidity; they eat the flesh of oxen and of animals that have

died a natural death. They are objects of horror
and detestation to the genuine Hindoos 5.

In a

A very different race meets the view in Hin-
dûstân, and along the coasts of the Deckan. These
are tall and slight, with handsome oval counte-
nances, long eyes and eyebrows, dark, smooth,
lank hair, an olive skin, but in the cooler regions,
and when not much exposed to the weather, even
fair, like that of more northern nations.
word, every thing tends to show their connexion
with the Persians, and to prove them to be a por-
tion of the Caucasian or Japhetian, thence named
the Indo-German family. Their language, the an-
cient Sanscrit, and its modern dialects, is clearly
akin to the Zend or ancient Persian, the Greek,
the Latin, the German, and many other western
tongues, while the Tamul, the Telinga, and the
other dialects of the Deckan, are as clearly of a totally
different family. The more general opinion is, that
this superior race came with the Persians from a
common country, the high lands of Central Asia,
and migrated into India where they subdued the
aboriginal tribes, and reduced them to a servile
condition. For a long time the Vindhya chain
formed their southern limit; but at length they
invaded the Deckan also, and spread their religion
and institutions over it. They also sent colonies
to the isle of Ceylon, and gradually diffused them
over the isles of the Indian Archipelago. There is
also reason to suspect that Hindoo colonists settled
on the coast of Africa, and thence proceeding down
the Nile, gave to Egypt those institutions so similar
to those of India. But this, as will easily be seen,
must have occurred at a time long prior to the
coinmencement of history.

The religion and the political institutions of a
people always most justly attract the principal at-
tention of the inquirer. The Hindoo religion, as it
is now and has been since the commencement of
history, is one of the most intricate and degrading
systems of polytheism and idolatry that can be
conceived; yet, like every other system, it seems
to have been in its origin pure and simple, and
gradually to have been corrupted. This appears
from the examination of the Hindoo literature, for
this people seem always to have possessed the art
of writing, and their books claim an age beyond
that of the literature of almost any other people.

At the head of the literature of the Hindoos
stand the four (or rather three) Vedas, each of
which contains hymns and prayers, moral precepts,
precepts,
and theological arguments. From the directions
which they contain respecting the calendar, it is
inferred that the lowest date which can be assigned
for their reduction to their present form is the
fourteenth century before the birth of Christ. The
religious system which these venerable monuments
present, is that of a pure monotheism, joined with
the worship of beings superior to man, presiding
over the elements, the stars and planets. Per-
sonified virtues and powers likewise appear in them,
but not prominently. Their general principle is,

5 There is every reason to suppose that our gypsies were
originally Bheels. These last are smiths and horsedealers,
thieves, jugglers, and dancers; and they are passionately
fond of gold and silver. In all these points they correspond
with the gypsies, whose Indian origin is historically certain;
but the gypsies are remarkable for sobriety.

G It is probable that the Mysoreans, and the other civilized
inhabitants of the Deckan, are descendants of the aborigines.

3

that every thing, "the substance as well as the
form of all created beings, was derived from the
will of the self-existing Cause.'

The next authority is the Code or Institutes of
Manu, of which we shall presently say more, whose
date is the ninth century before our era. In this
there is an account of creation, in which the Su-
preme Being produced a mundane egg, whence all
things, the deities included, arose mediately or im-
mediately. This creation, however, only endures
for a limited period, when all will be reduced to
nothing, Brahma, its support, being absorbed in
the divine essence. The inferior deities named in
it are Indra, air; Agni, fire; Varuna, water
Prithivi, earth; Surya, sun; Chandra, moon; and
some gods of the planets; Dherma, justice, and
other personifications.

The two great epic poems, the Ramayuna and
the Mahabharata, with the numerous Puranas, as
they are named, come next in order, and present
the copious and variegated system of popular be-
lief and mythology which is known to have pre-
vailed for more than 2000 years in India. In this
system the Deity is resolved into three persons
(the Trimurti, i. e. Three Forms), according to his
three great acts of creation, preservation, and de-
struction, named Brahma, Vishnoo, and Seeva, to
each of which is joined a female principle to denote
his active power. These are Seraswati, Lakshmi,
and Parvati. This last, the power of Seeva, is
also named Deva, Bhavani, and Durga. Beside
these deities and those above named, we meet
Pavani, wind; Cuvera, wealth; Cama, love; Car-
tikeia, war; Yama, the judge of the dead; and
Ganesa, who presides over entrances and com-
mencements. These, too, have their wives and at-
tendants, and the whole number of the denizens of
the Hindoo Olympus, gods, genii, celestial singers
and dancers, and others, is said to exceed three
hundred millions. Each of the great deities has a
heaven, or celestial abode of his own; those of
Seeva and of Indra are the most renowned, and
are luxuriantly described in Hindoo poetry.

Unlike the gods of Greece, the deities of India
are often represented as strange or hideous in
form. Ganesa has the head of an elephant; Seeva
has a necklace of skulls, so also has his wife, whose
form is still more direful than his own. A multi-
tude of heads or arms is given to a deity to denote
his wisdom or power; for we may notice that all
these deformities have arisen from art following
too closely the language of poetry and devotion.

イ

The Hindoos are divided into two great sects,
the adorers of Vishnoo and of Seeva. The latter
are by far the most numerous, but the literature of
India belongs chiefly to the former. The ten
Avatars or incarnations of Vishnoo, in which he
took flesh for the good of mankind, form an im-
portant part of the religious legends of the priest-
hood. The subject of the great epic poem, the
Ramayuna, is his conquest, in the form of a king
named Rama, of the Deckan and Ceylon. A more
celebrated, if possible, appearance of Vishnoo
(though not one of the ten Avatars), was that in
which he was a king's son, like Cyrus, brought up
by a herdsman under the name of Crishna to con-
ceal him from a tyrant that sought his life. He
afterwards overcame and slew the tyrant, and in
the great poem, the Mahabharata, which celebrates
the wars of the kindred families of the Pandûs and

the Cûrûs, we find Chrishna the ally of the former. His youthful adventures among the Gôpis, or milkmaids, are the theme of poetry, and Chrishna is the favourite deity of the women of India.

To enumerate the absurd legends, to describe the numerous ceremonies, the painful and disgusting penances of the Hindoo religion, is not possible in our limits. When we take a view of them, and more especially recollect, that it is a fixed point with every sect that faith in their god supersedes all religion and morality, we might expect to find the Hindoo character devoid of every estimable quality. But such is by no means the case; the principles of morality are too deeply seated in the human heart, and too essential to the well-being of society to allow them to become extinct, and the religious books of India are too full of its precepts to let them fall into oblivion. Accordingly, the most candid observers of the Hindoo character speak favourably of it, and, lascivious as are many of the legends and ceremonies of the Hindoo religion, the chastity and domestic virtues of the Hindoo women are far above the general standard in some Christian countries.

Like every other people, the Hindoos have a firm belief in a future state of existence. Their great doctrine on this head is that of the transmigration of souls, according to which, the soul after quitting its present abode, will animate another body, either that of a man or an inferior animal, and as the kind of body depends on a man's conduct in this life, this doctrine, as far as it is not affected by that of faith, is not without moral effect. They also hold that in the intervals of being on earth, the soul is, according to its merits, for thousands of years, happy in one of the numerous heavens, or tormented in one of the many hells of their creed.

The system of religion here faintly sketched, is the prevalent, almost the only one professed by the modern Hindoos. It is named Braminism from the Bramins, who are its teachers. But five, or even ten centuries before our era, a great reformation of it was effected by a person named Buddha, who rejecting the Vedas and Puranas, and the distinction of castes, taught that all men are brethren and equal; that future happiness, which consisted in absorption in the divinity, was to be obtained by the practice of virtue, by contemplation, and by mortification of the senses. The Buddhist, too, was on no account to deprive even the smallest insect of existence. The sect long flourished in India, but at length the Bramins, aided by the temporal power, succeeded in suppressing it by persecution. Its votaries had already carried it into all the countries north and east of India, and it is computed that nearly two-thirds of the people of Asia profess it. Certainly no other religion can vie with it in extent of sway. One of the most curious circumstances in Buddhism is its astonishing agreement with the Church of Rome in rites, ceremonies, and institutions. Like it, for example, it has monasteries of both sexes, with injunctions of celibacy. The resemblance is so strong, that the early Catholic missionaries regarded it as a device of the devil to turn men from the truth.

There is still in India a sect named the Jains, who agree in some points with the Buddhists, and like them reject Braminism. But they are not numerous, and the Bramins have long since lost the power to persecute.

A contemplative people, as the Hindoos are, must early have turned their thoughts to the subjects denominated metaphysical. We accordingly find that all the theories on that subject, formed by the Greeks or by the moderns, were already familiar to the sages of India. Thus the system devised by the excellent Bishop Berkeley, and developed and explained by him with so much ingenuity and elegance, was known in India centuries before our era. So also was the atomistic theory, on which Epicurus founded his philosophy, long familiar to the Hindoos.

In astronomy the Hindoos had advanced far before the Greeks. They were acquainted with the precession of the equinoxes, they knew the causes of eclipses, and had constructed tables by which they might be accurately calculated. Some of their sages had discovered the diurnal revolution of the earth on its axis, and had even with tolerable accuracy calculated its diameter. A passage in the Vedas asserts that the pole-star changes its position, the constellations are named in the epic poems, and the fixed stars are spoken of as bodies of great magnitude, which shone by their own native light. In geometry the Hindoos had made discoveries, which were not made in Europe till modern times. Such were the mode of expressing the area of a triangle in terms of its sides, and that of expressing the proportion of the radius to the diameter of a circle. In arithmetic, they are entitled to the fame of the invention of the decimal system of notation. But, in algebra, the merits of the Hindoos are still higher, and discoveries not made in Europe till the last century were familiar in India for centuries before. This, however, is the latest of their sciences, and the works which treat of it have all been written since the commencement of our Finally, the Hindoos were versed in trigonometry, in which they went far before the Greeks, and were acquainted with theorems not discovered in Europe till the sixteenth century.

era.

The San

All the subtleties of logic, and the refinements of grammar, are to be met with in Sanscrit works on these subjects. In the copious poetic literature of India, the niceties and varieties of metre are as numerous as in that of ancient Greece. scrit language is, for copiousness, beauty, flexibility, and nicety of structure, almost without a rival, in the opinion of those most competent to form a judgment on the subject.

The wonderful excavated temples of Ellora, Salsette, and Elephantina, and the Pagodas 7 on the Coromandel coast, prove that in architectural skill, and in the art of sculpture, the ancient Hindoos far exceeded the Egyptians. That in the most remote ages the Hindoos understood the art of ship-building, and made distant voyages, is proved by their colonies. There is also in the ancient Code of Manu a law relating to the interest of money, in which that lent on bottomry is particularly noticed; and this, we may observe, could only take place among a people familiar with the sea.

For the political condition of ancient India, the great authority is the Code of Manu. We think, however, that those inquirers are wrong, who

7 We will describe the form of the Pagoda in the subse. quent part of our work. The name is a corruption of the Sanscrit Bhahagavate, holy house.

suppose this Code to be like that of Justinian, the Code Napoléon, or similar works-a system of laws and regulations which were actually in force, and cited as the law of the land. We rather agree with those who view in it an ideal system, like the Republic and Laws of Cicero, in which the actual constitution and laws of the state are taken as a basis, and such additions made, as in the writer's opinion would bring it nearer to perfection. On this principle, and we believe on no other, can we account for the extravagant privileges and powers given in it to the Bramins, and the intolerable precepts laid down in it for the regulations of their lives, privileges, and powers which they never possessed, and precepts which they could only partially have obeyed.

The great feature of the Laws of Manu is the division of the people into castes like those that prevailed in ancient Egypt. These were four in number, viz. the Bramins, the Cshatriyas, the Vaisyas, and the Sudras, the first of which, it is said, proceeded from the mouth, the second from the arm, the third from the thigh, and the fourth from the foot of Brahma.

The Bramins were not, as is generally, but perhaps erroneously stated, a sacerdotal caste, for we nowhere read of their conducting public worship, like the priests of Judæa or Egypt. They seem rather to have been "an order of men who followed a course of religious study and practice during the first half of their lives, and spent the other in a condition of self-denial and mendicity 9. They were, in fact, a people of philosophers, who were to be the instructors of the other classes in their public and private duties; for, though the next two classes might read the Vedas, the Bramin alone was to expound them. The king was to have a Bramin for his counsellor, and justice was to be administered by Bramins; but the Bramin was to shun all worldly honour, and not to seek to accumulate wealth. A Bramin was to spend the first quarter of his life as a student, rendering every, even the most menial, service to his master, and he was to support himself by begging from door to door. In the next quarter he was to marry and live with his wife and family, discharging the duties of his order, of which the principal was teaching. When this was concluded, he was to become an anchorite, retiring to the woods, clad with bark or the skin of an antelope, letting his hair and nails grow, sleeping on the ground, exposed to the rain and sun," without fire, without à mansion, wholly silent, feeding on roots and fruit.' The last stage relieves the Bramin from much of this austerity. He returns to the world, dresses nearly as the ordinary Bramin, is released from all ceremonies and external forms. His only business is contemplation, till at last he quits the body “as a bird leaves the branch of a tree at its pleasure." Such is a sketch of a part of what we may term the ideal of the life of a Bramin; for, though individuals might and did reduce it to practice, such could never have been done by all the members of a numerous society.

8 This, like so many other words relating to India, has come to us from the Portuguese. In their language, and in that of Spain, casta is race, kind, or quality; but we know not its origin.

9 Wilson, note on Mill, i. p. 191.

Am

The Cshatriyas were the military caste; the royal dignity belonged to them, and all places of rank and command; for the Bramins only expounded the laws, and took no part in the executive government. The Cshatriya was to defend the people, to give alms, read the Vedas, and sacrifice, and he was to shun sensual gratifications.

The Vaisya was to cultivate the land, keep cattle, follow trade, and lend money on interest. He too was to give alms, sacrifice, and read the Vedas.

The lot of the Sudra was the most unfavourable. He was to be the servant of all, but his exact station can hardly be ascertained. In some respects he resembled the Spartan helot; but though in the Code he is treated with the utmost contempt, and as if he were not of the same species with the higher classes, yet Hindoo nature was always too gentle to allow of such being the practice, and the lot of the Sudra was never so hard as that of the helot or of the middle-age serf.

The men of the first three classes might marry into the classes beneath them, but this was not permitted to the women. If a Bramin woman married a Sudra, their son was a Chandala, the lowest of mortals, and if he united himself with a woman of the higher classes, their progeny, says the law, " is more foul than their begetter." It is from these marriages that many of the numerous sub-divisions of caste have been derived.

A name by which the three higher castes are distinguished, is that of the twice-born. A Bramin

in his fifteenth, a Cshatriya in his twenty-second, a Vaisya in his twenty-fourth year was solemnly girt with a band or thread, the first of cotton, the second of cusa-grass, the last of wool, which went over the left shoulder and across the breast. This was regarded as a second birth; the Sudra who was not admitted to this honour was only a onceborn.

The government in India was absolute monarchy. The king and all his officers were of the Cshatriya caste. It would appear that the monarch was at liberty to choose his successor among his sons. Great monarchies seem to have been unknown ; though occasionally an able and warlike prince may have made several minor states acknowledge his supremacy.

The revenue, as in the case of all ancient monarchies, arose chiefly from a share in the produce of the land. In the case of grain, this varied from a twelfth to a sixth, according to the quality of the soil; it might, if necessary, be raised to a fourth. The king had also a sixth of the produce of trees, of honey, and other natural productions, and of manufactures. There were also duties on merchandise, licences for carrying on trades, etc.

The country was partitioned into civil and military divisions. There were lords of one, ten, a | hundred, and a thousand villages, and over these were officers of high rank, whose duty it was to inspect them, and correct any abuses they might commit. The military divisions did not coincide with the civil ones; in each was a body of troops under an approved officer. It is probable that some part of the revenue of the district was assigned for the pay of the officer and his troops.

It is probable that the village-system, which is of so much importance in modern India, is coeval with the formation of the state; but as it is not spoken

of in the Laws of Manu, we will defer our notice of it.

time, for Megasthenes, the ambassador of Seleucus, resided for many years at the court of Palibothra 1.

The history of India henceforth becomes very obscure. We collect from the Hindoo books, and from inscriptions, that the tribes that possessed Bactria used to make inroads into the Punjâb, and that the religious feuds, which ended in the overthrow of Buddhism, raged during this period; but still all accounts concur in representing the country as being in a very flourishing state. The court of the princes, whose name was Vicramaditya, who reigned at Ayôdha, i.e. Oude, and who_extended their dominion to the Deckan, was famed for mag

CHAPTER III.

Earliest notice of India - Alexander the Great GræcoBactrian Kingdom-Vicramaditya-The Khalifat-Invasion of India - Decline of the Khalifat-Sebuktegîn Mahmûd of Ghuzni-His Invasions of India-Temple of Sômnât-Character of Mahmûd-End of his Dynasty.

INDIA has no history of its own; our first knowledge of it, as of so many other countries, is derived from the Greeks. Herodotus, when describing the extent of the Persian empire under Darius I., names India as one of the provinces; but this was only the part of it about the Indus, and as the inhabitants of a strip of country under the Parapamisus mountains to the west of that river is said to have been possessed by Indians, it is doubtful if the dominion of the Persian monarch extended into the Punjâb. When Alexander the Great had overthrown the Persian empire, his lust of conquest led him to India. He took the route trodden by all the invaders of that country, namely, along the valley of the river Câbul, crossed the Indus at probably the modern Attock, and conquered the Punjâb as far as the Beyah, and but for the mutiny of his troops, which forced him to return, he might have reached the Ganges. As he probably proposed to revisit India, he took care to establish an interest there by extending the dominions of the two rajas Taxiles and Porus, the first of whom had been his ally, and the second his most powerful opponent. His death, however, and the confusion into which his empire fell, ended all plans for the subjugation of India. The princes of the Macedonian empire which established itself in Bactria held the vale of the Câbui, and extended their claims over India; and Menander, one of these princes, marched into that country as far as the Jumna. But there was a powerful native empire, named by the Greeks that of the Prasii, whose capital, named Palibothra, lay at the confluence of the Ganges and the Sôn; and the Syrian kings, Seleucus and Antiochus, formed alliances with the sovereigns of this empire against the Bactrian monarch, whose dominion was finally overturned by the hordes of the north. It is to the circumstance of this alliance that we are chiefly indebted for our knowledge of India at that

science. It was at the court of the first prince of this name, a few years before our era, that Calidâsa, the author of the beautiful drama, Sacôntala, flourished. Foreign trade was carried on extensively during this time, and the products of India were diffused over the Persian, the Roman, and other empires; but darkness broods over the internal history.

While India was thus in repose, the prophet of the Arabs appeared. The inhabitants of the desert, animated by enthusiasm, fell on the effete and feeble empires of Rome and Persia, and every where victory followed their banners. Their empire speedily extended from the Ebro to the Oxus. The Khalifehs, or successors of the prophet, had finally fixed their abode at Bagdad on the Tigris; their dominion extended into Câbul, and but for the decay of enthusiasm, the feuds that broke out, and the inertness and degeneracy always consequent on long-established rule in the East, the conquest of a large part of India might have been achieved.

India was, in fact, invaded by the troops of the Khalîfehs. In the reign of the Khalîfeh Walîd 1. an Arab ship was seized at a placed named Dêwal, in Sind. Application was made to Dâhir, the rajah of that country, for restitution, but he replied that Dewal was not under his authority. The governor of Basra, for the Khalîfeh, would not be satisfied with this reply, and he despatched from Shiraz, under the command of his nephew, named Mohammed Câsim (a youth of only twenty years of age), a force of 6000 men to invade the territory of the Hindoo prince (711). Câsim led his little army in safety through the desert of Mecrân, which, under the name of Gedrosia, had so nearly proved fatal to Alexander the Great. He appeared before Dêwal, which he reduced, and thence advancing crossed the Indus to Mêrûn (now Hyderabad), whence he proceeded, apparently northwards, to Alôr, the then capital of Sind, but of which the ruins only now remain. His force had by this time been augmented by a body of 2000 horse from Persia; but the rajah was awaiting him with an army of 50,000 men. Câsim seeing the great disparity of numbers, prudently resolved to act on the

1 The prince with whom Seleucus was allied is called Sandracottus. Sir W. Jones was struck with its resemblance to Chandraguptas, i. e. Moon-protected, a celebrated name in Hindoo story. The history of the two, who were both usurpers, in fact, coincides, and thus the first point in Indian chronology was obtained. Palibothra is the Sanscrit Pataliputra, whose ruins are near the modern Patna. The name which Megasthenes gives the Sôn is Erannoboas, a Græcised form of its Sanscrit name Hirânyavalas, i. e. Gold-armed.