Vincent Arthur Smith

“ I am often puzzled to understand why so many of the best men who succeed at the open competition elect for the Home Service rather than for the Indian. A clerkship on £150 a year, with the probability that the successful candidate will be a clerk of sorts for all his life, does not seem to me so attractive as it evidently is to many people. In the Home Service we find routine work, little dignity, small pay, and few good things. In the Indian Service, we find responsible work of the most varied character, the highest judicial and administrative dignities, and numerous well-paid appointments. ”

“ And when he had thus spoken, Ajatasatru the king said to the Blessed One: 'Most excellent, Lord, most excellent! Just as if a man were to set up that which has been thrown down, or were to reveal that which is hidden away, or were to point out the right road to him who has gone astray, or were to bring a lamp into the darkness so that those who have eyes could see external forms just even so, Lord, has the truth been made known to me, in many a figure, by the Blessed One. And now I betake myself, Lord, to the Blessed One as my refuge, to the Truth, and to the Order. ”

“ From the time of his consecration as emperor of India, two hundred and eighteen years after the death of the perfect Buddha, the miraculous faculties of royal majesty entered into King Asoka, and the glory which he obtained by his merit extended a league above and a league below the earth. ”

“ Most of us have something of the sportsman in our natures; and in spite of all the havoc wrought in the old hunting-grounds by the spread of cultivation and the increase of population, the man of moderate means can still find use for gun and rifle in India. Life in camp gives many delightful opportunities for combining business with pleasure; and the best sportsman is very often the best official. There are diversities of gifts; and the duties of the Indian Civil Service are so diverse that there is room for men of all tastes—for the scholar as well as for the sportsman. ”

“ When all these certainties, probabilities, and possibilities are considered, I think that the assertion is justified that no other official Service in the world, with perhaps the exception of the Royal Engineers, offers to an energetic young man of good abilities so many openings for the attainment of rank, dignity, power, and modest competence.
Besides the official attractions of pay and power, an Indian career has many charms, and few men who have once experienced those charms can lose them for ever without a pang. ”

“ By thus acting a man exalts his own sect, and at the same time does service to the sects of other people. By acting contrariwise a man hurts his own sect, and does disservice to the sects of other people. For he who does reverence to his own sect while disparaging the sects of others wholly from attachment to his own, with intent to enhance the splendour of his own sect, in reality by such conduct inflicts the severest injury on his own sect.
Concord, therefore, is meritorious, to wit, hearkening and hearkening willingly to the Law of Piety as accepted by other people. ”

“ In that year he sought to round off his dominions by the conquest of the Kingdom of the Three Kalingas, or Kalinga, on the coast of the Bay of Bengal between the Mahânadî and Godâvarî rivers. His arms were successful and the kingdom was annexed to the empire. But the horrors which must accompany war, even successful war, made a deep impression on the heart of the victorious monarch, who has recorded on the rocks in imperishable words the sufferings of the vanquished and the remorse of the victor. ”

“ There resulted in consequence a great slaughter of the cavalry, cooped up as it was within a narrow space around the elephants. Many of the elephant drivers, moreover, had been shot down, and of the elephants themselves some had been wounded, while others, both from exhaustion and the loss of their mahouts, no longer kept to their own side of the conflict, but, as if driven frantic by their sufferings, attacked friend and foe quite indiscriminately, pushed them, trampled them down, and killed them in all manner of ways. ”

“ The man who likes a quiet life probably will prefer the dignified, if monotonous, duties of the Bench, and, as a matter of course, will become a District and Sessions Judge, with unlimited civil and criminal jurisdiction, subject to the control of the High Court of his province. If he is exceptionally able or lucky, or, still better, is both, he will himself obtain a seat in a High Court, have a good time, and ultimately retire with an extra pension.
But the young officer who is active, energetic, and ambitious will generally incline to choose the more exacting tasks of the executive line. ”

“ May the Blessed One accept me as a disciple, as one who, from this day forth, as long as life endures, has taken his refuge in them. Sin has overcome me, Lord, weak and foolish and wrong that I am, in that for the sake of sovereignty, I put to death my father, that righteous man, that righteous king! ”

“ The Kumrâhâr palace apparently was that of Asoka's grandfather. Chandragupta's abode, although probably constructed mostly of timber like the palaces of the modern kings of Burma, is described as excelling in magnificence the royal pleasaunces of Susa and Ekbatana. The pillars, we are told, were clasped all round with vines embossed in gold, and adorned with silver figures of the most attractive birds. The gardens were replete with the choicest plants and furnished with artificial ponds of great beauty. ”

“ Practically nothing is known concerning the early history of the possibly equally advanced Dravidian races who entered India, perhaps from the valley of the lower Indus, spread over the plateau of the Deccan, and penetrated to the extremity of the Peninsula. Our slender stock of knowledge is limited to the fortunes of the vigorous races, speaking an Aryan tongue, who poured down from the mountains of the Hindu Kush and Pamirs, filling the plains of the Pan jab and the upper basin of the Ganges with a sturdy and quick-witted population, unquestionably superior to the aboriginal races. ”

“ There is no reason to believe that after the subjugation of the Kalingas Asoka ever again waged an aggressive war. His officers, the Wardens of the Marches mentioned in the edicts, may or may not have been compelled at times to defend portions of his extended frontiers against the incursions of enemies, but all that we know of his life indicates that once he had begun to devote himself to the love, protection, and teaching of the Law of Piety, or dharma, he never again allowed himself to be tempted by ambition into an unprovoked war. ”

“ It is therefore unsafe to venture on any general statement affirming that after so many years' service a civilian may expect so much pay or such and such rank.
I am perhaps justified in saying that for the first five years of his service, especially if married, he will be a poor man, that when of ten years' standing he will be fairly well off, and that after twenty years' service he should be drawing in the ordinary line not less than £1800 a year. Of course, if an officer is a favourite of fortune, he may do very much better. ”

“ Although the names of even the greatest monarchs of ancient India are at present unfamiliar to the general reader, and awaken few echoes in the minds of any save specialists, it is not unreasonable to hope that an orderly presentation of the ascertained facts of ancient Indian history may be of interest to a larger circle than that of professed Orientalists, and that, as the subject becomes more familiar to the reading public, it will be found no less worthy of attention than more familiar departments of historical study. ”

“ The only organized religion other than Buddhism or Jainism was Hinduism, and that complex phenomenon at all times is more accurately described as a social system than by the name of either a religion or a creed. When Asoka speaks of the toleration of other men's creeds, he is not thinking of exclusive, militant religions like Christianity and Islam, but of Hindu sects all connected by many links of common sentiment. ”

“ The researches of Orientalists during the last hundred years have established many points of contact between the ancient East and the modern West, and no Hellenist can now afford to profess complete ignorance of the Babylonian and Egyptian culture which forms the bed-rock of European institutions. Even China has been brought into touch with Europe, while the languages, literature, art, and philosophy of the West have been proved to be connected by innumerable bonds with those of India. ”

“ One of them defines the Law of Piety as comprising the duties of 'compassion, almsgiving, truth, purity, gentleness, and saintliness [20] .' Excellent moral doctrine of such a kind is inculcated over and over again, and men are invited to win both the royal favour and heavenly bliss by acting up to the precepts of the Law.
No student of the edicts can fail to be struck by the purely human and severely practical character of the teaching. The object avowedly aimed at, as in modern Burma, is the happiness of living creatures, man and beast [21] . ”

“ Nevertheless, personal adherence to one's own creed is the chief thing in my opinion.' These latitudinarian views did not, as we have seen, prevent him from imposing very stringent rules of conduct on persons of all ranks and classes, irrespective of their religious denomination. Men might believe what they liked but must do as they were told.
When we apply to Asoka's policy the word toleration with its modern connotation and justly applaud the liberality of his sentiments, another qualification is needed, and we must remember that in his days no really diverse religions existed in India. ”

“ The besieged, being more anxious to gain time for escape than to conclude a treaty, evacuated the rock during the night, and attempted to slip away unobserved in the darkness. But the unsleeping vigilance of Alexander detected the movement, and partially defeated their plans. Placing himself at the head of seven hundred picked men, he clambered up the cliff the moment the garrison began to retire, and slew many. ”

“ The conception of an Indian Empire, extending from sea to sea, and embracing almost the whole of India and Afghanistan, was formed and carried into effect by Chandragupta and his minister in the brief space of twenty-four years. History can show few greater political achievements. Not only was the empire formed, but it was so thoroughly organized that the sovereign's commands emanating from Pâtaliputra were obeyed without demur on the banks of the Indus and the shores of the Arabian sea. ”

“ A recent Indian author justly observes that "India suffers to-day in the estimation of the world more through the world's ignorance of the achievements of the heroes of Indian history than through the absence or insignificance of such achievements." The following pages may serve to prove that the men of old time in India did deeds worthy of remembrance and deserving of rescue from the oblivion in which they have been buried for so many centuries. ”

“ We must also consider how he managed to reconcile the apparently inconsistent positions of monk and monarch.
Dharma, or Dhaṁma, means to a Hindu the rule of life for each man as determined by his caste and station, or, in other words, the whole duty, religious, moral, and social, of a man born to occupy a certain position in the world. For many ages past this conception of dharma has been inseparably associated with the notions of caste. Each caste has its own dharma, and conduct most proper for the member of one caste is reprehensible in the highest degree for a member of another. ”

“ Alexander, having received information of their design, suddenly attacked the Indians while they reposed in fancied security, and inflicted severe loss upon them. Recovering from their surprise, the mercenaries formed themselves into a hollow circle, with the women and children in the centre, and offered a desperate resistance, in which the women took an active part. At last the gallant defenders were overpowered by superior numbers, and, in the words of an ancient historian, "met a glorious death which they would have disdained to exchange for a life with dishonour." ”