Vincent Arthur Smith

“ 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. ”

“ 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 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 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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! ”

“ Nor is it possible for the writer of a history, however great may be his respect for the objective fact, to eliminate altogether his own personality. Every kind of evidence, even the most direct, must reach the reader, when in narrative form, as a reflection from the mirror of the writer's mind, with the liability to unconscious distortion. In the following pages the author has endeavoured to exclude the subjective element so far as possible, and to make no statement of fact without authority. ”

“ The historian of ancient India is fairly well provided with a supply of such lists, traditions, and mythology, which, of course, require to be treated on the strict critical principles applied by modern students to the early histories of both Western and Eastern nations. The application of those principles is not more difficult in the case of India than it is in that of Babylonia, Egypt, Greece, or Rome. The real difficulty is the determination of fixed chronological points. A body of history must be supported upon a skeleton of chronology, and without chronology history is impossible. ”

“ It is difficult to sympathize with the pleasure and delight of the brethren. The stern and fearless reprobation of a deed of exceptional atrocity which we should expect from a great moral teacher is wholly wanting in Buddha's words, and is poorly compensated for by the politeness of a courtier. Whatever be the reader's judgment concerning the sincerity of the royal penitent or the moral courage of his father confessor, it is clear from the unanimity of tradition that the crime on which the story is based really occurred, and that Ajatasatru slew his father to gain a throne. ”

“ The author's aim is to present the story of ancient India, so far as practicable, in the form of a connected narrative, based upon the most authentic evidence available; to relate facts, however established, with impartiality; and to discuss the problems of history in a judicial spirit. He has striven to realize, however imperfectly, the ideal expressed in the words of Goethe:—
"The historian's duty is to separate the true from the false, the certain from the uncertain, and the doubtful from that which cannot be accepted.... ”

“ 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." ”

“ In those days vast territories were still covered by forest, the home of countless wild beasts and scanty tribes of savage men; but regions of great extent in Northern India had been occupied for untold centuries by more or less civilized communities of the higher races who, from time to time, during the unrecorded past, had pierced the mountain barriers of the north-western frontier. ”

“ These two generations are supposed to have reigned for a century, which cannot possibly be true. The Jains, doing still greater violence to reason, extend the duration of the dynasty to 155 years, while the Buddhist Mahavamsa, Dipavamsa, and Asokavadana deepen the confusion by hopelessly muddled and contradictory stories not worth repeating. Some powerful motive must have existed for the distortion of the history of the so-called "Nine Nandas" in all forms of the tradition, but it is not easy to make even a plausible guess at the nature of that motive. ”

“ When the elephants, however, became quite exhausted, and their attacks were no longer made with vigour, they fell back like ships backing water, and merely kept trumpeting as they retreated with their faces to the enemy. Then did Alexander surround with his cavalry the whole of the enemy's line, and signal that the infantry, with their shields linked together so as to give the utmost compactness to their ranks, should advance in phalanx. ”

“ The ancient kingdoms of the south, although rich and populous, inhabited by Dravidian nations not inferior in culture to their Aryan rivals in the north, were ordinarily so secluded from the rest of the civilized world, including Northern India, that their affairs remained hidden from the eyes of other nations, and, native annalists being lacking, their history, previous to the year 1000 of the Christian era, has almost wholly perished. ”

“ The city so founded was known variously as Kusumapura, Pushpapura, or Pataliputra, and rapidly developed in size and magnificence, until, under the Maurya dynasty, it became the capital, not only of Magadha, but of India.
Buddha, as has been mentioned above, died early in the reign of Ajatasatru. Shortly before his death, Kapilavastu, his ancestral home, was captured by Virudhaka, King of Kosala, who is alleged to have perpetrated a ferocious massacre of the Sakya clan to which Buddha belonged. ”

“ Schism has always been esteemed by the orthodox a deadly sin, and in all ages the unsuccessful heretic has been branded as a villain by the winning sect. Such, probably, is the origin of the numerous tales concerning the villainies of the Devadatta, including the supposed incitement of his princely patron to commit the crime of parricide.
There seems to be no doubt that both Vardhamana Mahavira, the founder of the system known as Jainism, and Gautama, the last Buddha, the founder of Buddhism as known to later ages, were preaching in Magadha during the reign of Bimbisara. ”

“ It is therefore as often mentioned as the rival power. At the beginning of the historical period, the smaller kingdom of Kasi, or Benares, had lost its independence and had been annexed by Kosala, with which its fortunes were indissolubly bound up. This little kingdom owes its fame in the ancient books not only to its connection with its powerful neighbour, but also to its being one of the most sacred spots in Buddhist church history, the scene of Buddha's earliest public preaching, where he first "turned the wheel of the Law." ”

“ But great as was the power of the Indian bow, it was too cumbrous to meet the attack of the mobile Macedonian cavalry. The slippery state of the surface prevented the archers from resting the end of their weapons firmly on the ground, and Alexander's horse were able to deliver their charge before the bowmen had completed their adjustments. The Indian horsemen, each of whom carried two javelins and a buckler, were far inferior in personal strength and military discipline to Alexander's men. ”

“ During this march eastward, Hephaistion and Perdikkas were accompanied by the King of Taxila, a great city beyond the Indus, who had lost no time in obeying Alexander's summons and in placing his services at the disposal of the invader. Other chiefs on the western side of the Indus adopted the same course, and, with the help of these native potentates, the Macedonian generals were enabled to make satisfactory progress in the task of bridging the Indus, which had been committed to them by their sovereign. ”

“ The structures thus solemnly dedicated were well designed to serve their double purpose, and constituted a dignified and worthy monument of the piety and labours of the world's greatest general. Their significance was fully appreciated by the Indian powers which had been compelled to bend before the Macedonian storm. We are told that Chandragupta Maurya, the first Emperor of India who succeeded to the lordship of Alexander's conquests, and his successors for centuries afterward, continued to venerate the altars, and were in the habit of crossing the river to offer sacrifice upon them. ”

“ The historian of the remote past of any nation must be content to rely much upon tradition as embodied in literature, and to acknowledge that the results of his researches, when based upon traditionary materials, are inferior in certainty to those obtainable for periods of which the facts are attested by contemporary evidence. ”

“ Unquestionably the most copious and important source of early Indian history is the epigraphic, and the accurate knowledge of many periods of the long-forgotten past which has now been attained is derived mainly from the patient study of inscriptions during the last seventy years. ”

“ There is no difficulty in believing the tradition that the revolution involved the extermination of all related to the fallen monarch, for revolutions in the East are not effected without much shedding of blood. ”

“ 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 hot season was at its height, but to Alexander all seasons were equally fit for campaigning, and he led his soldiers on and on from conquest to conquest, regardless of the snows of the mountains and the scorching heat of the plains. He arrived at Jihlam early in May, and found the river already flooded by the melting of the snow on the hills. The boats which had served for the passage of the Indus were cut into sections and transported on wagons to be rebuilt on the bank of the Hydaspes, where they were again utilized for the crossing of that river. ”

“ Gautama Buddha was certainly an old man when Ajatasatru, or Kunika, as the Jains call him, came to the throne about 495 or 490 B.C., and he had at least one interview with that king. One of the earliest Buddhist documents narrates in detail the story of a visit paid to Buddha by Ajatasatru, who is alleged to have expressed remorse for his crime, and to have professed his faith in Buddha, who accepted his confession of sin. ”

“ Behind the elephants stood a compact force of thirty thousand infantry with projections on the wings, and files of the infantry were pushed forward in the intervals between the elephants, so that the Indian army presented "very much the appearance of a city,—the elephants as they stood resembling its towers, and the men-at-arms placed between them resembling the lines of wall intervening between tower and tower." Both flanks were protected by cavalry with chariots in front. The cavalry numbered four thousand and the chariots three hundred. ”

“ It is certain that the latter kingdom is not again mentioned as an independent power, and that in the fourth century B. C. it formed an integral part of the Magadha empire. The ambition of Ajatasatru, not satisfied with the humiliation of Kosala, next induced him to undertake the conquest of the country to the north of the Ganges, now known as Tirhut, in which the Lichchhavi clan, famous in Buddhist legend, then occupied a prominent position. The invasion was successful; the Lichchhavi capital, Vaisali, was occupied, and Ajatasatru became master of his maternal grandfather's territory. ”

“ The great military power of the usurpers, as attested by Greek testimony, was the result of the conquests effected by Bimbisara and Ajatasatru, and presumably continued by their successors; but the limits of the Nanda dominions cannot be defined, nor can the dates of the dynasty be determined with accuracy. It is quite certain that the two generations did not last for a hundred and fifty-five, or even for a hundred, years ”

“ Alexander in person assumed the command of the second corps, or division, consisting of the infantry known as hypaspists, the foot-guards, the Agrianian or Thracian light infantry, the archers, the mounted lancers, and the rest of the horse-guards. With this force he undertook a flanking movement through the difficult hill country north of the Kabul River, in order to subdue the fierce tribes which inhabited, as they still inhabit, that region, and thus to secure his communications, and protect his army from attacks on the flank and rear. ”