The vowels e and o are always long in Sanskrit, and
are therefore only marked as such in the non-Sanskritic names of Southern
India, in which it is necessary to distinguish them from the corresponding
short vowels.
are therefore only marked as such in the non-Sanskritic names of Southern
India, in which it is necessary to distinguish them from the corresponding
short vowels.
Cambridge History of India - v1
Chand, 1965-, [1922-].
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H
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THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF INDIA
IN SIX VOLUMES
VOLUME I
ANCIENT INDIA
## p. ii (#6) ###############################################
THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF INDIA
SIX VOLUMES
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THE
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Edited by Doduell
Part I.
Part II.
Part III.
COMPLETE,
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Muslim India
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THE
CAMBRIDGE
HISTORY OF INDIA
VOLUME I
ANCIENT
INDIA
EDITED BY
E. J. RAPSON, M. A.
PROFESSOR OF SANSKRIT IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
AND FELLOW OF ST JOHN'S COLLEGE.
SECOND INDIAN REPRINT
1962
S. CHAND &
& CO. ,
DELHI-NEW DELHI-JULLUNDUR
LUCKNOW-BOMBAY
## p. iv (#8) ###############################################
L'
Published in India by S. Chand & Co. by arrangement with
Cambridge University Press, London.
S.
CHAND &
CO.
Ram Nagar
Fountain
Lamington Road
Mai Hiran Gate
Lal Bagh
New Delhi
Delhi
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Lucknow
LOAN STACK
Price : Rs. 40/-
Printed at Super Press, New Delhi.
## p. v (#9) ################################################
.
DS124
C2
ril
PREFACE
l
THE present volume deals with the history of ancient India from
the earliest times to about the middle of the first century A. D. ;
and it attempts to represent the stage of progress which research has now
reached in its task of recovering from the past the outlines of a history
which, only a few years ago, was commonly supposed to be irretrievably
lost. Well within the memory of contributors to this volume it was the
fashion to say that there was no history of India before the Muhammadan
conquests in the eleventh century A. D. , and the general opinion seemed to
be summed up in the dictum of the cynic who roundly asserted that all
supposed dates for earlier events were like skittles-set up simply to be
bowleb down again. But this gibe, not quite justifiable even when it was
uttered, could not be repeated at the present day. It has lost its point : it
is no longer even approximately true.
Regarded as a record of the character and achievements of great
leaders of men, this history indeed is, and must always remain, sadly
deficient. Of all the conquerors and administrators who appear in this
volume there are two only - Alexander the Great and, in a less degree,
Açoka —whose personality is at all intimately known to us ; in the case of
others the bare memory of some of their deeds has been preserved ; the
rest have become mere names to which research has given a time and a
place. But the fragments of fact which have been rescued from the past
are now sufficiently numerous and well established to enable us to construct
chronological and geographical framework for the political history of many
of the kingdoms and empires of ancient India ; and into this framework
may be fitted the history of social institutions, which is reflected with
unusual clearness in the ancient literatures.
The manner in which modern scholarship has succeeded in throwing
light on the dark ages of India, and in revealing order where all seemed
to be chaos, is briefly indicated in the latter section of Chapter II which
deals with the sources of history. The story of rediscovery is a long record
of struggles with problems which were once thought to be insoluble, and
of the ultimate triumphs of patience and ingenuity. It begins in 1793,
when Sir William Jones supplied 'the sheet-anchor of Indian chronology'
by his identification of the Sandrocottus of Alexander's historians with
the Chandragupta of Sanskrit literature ; and its great epoch is ushered
in by the decipherment of the long-forgotten alphabets of the ancient
Indian inscriptions by James Prinsep in 1834. The first comprehensive
916
## p. vi (#10) ##############################################
vi
PREFACE
summary of historical gains appeared in 1858, when Christian Lassen
published the first volume of his Indische Alterthumskunde : and in recent
years other summaries have been made by Dr Vincent Smith (Early
History of India, 1st edn. 1904, 2nd edn. 1908, 3rd edn. 1914), by Dr L. D.
Barnett (Indian Antiquities, 1913), and, on a smaller scale, by the editor of
this volunue (Ancient India, 1914).
The Cambridge History of India makes a new departure. The litera-
ture of the subject has become so vast, and is still growing with such
rapidity, that the best hope of securing a real advance in the study now
lies in a division of labour among scholars who have explored at first hand
the main sources of information. This volume therefore follows the plan
adopted in the modern and medieval histories published by the Cambridge
University Press. It is the outcome of the combination of a number of
investigators with an editor whose function it has been to coordinate, so
far as seemed possible or advisable, results obtained independently. That
this plan is not without its disadvantages is obvious. All cooperative enter-
prises of the kind involve necessarily some reiteration and also some
discrepancy; and the questions which an editor must decide are how
far repeated discussions of the same topic contribute to a fuller knowledge
or are merely redundant, and how far different opinions admit of reconcilia-
tion or should be allowed to remain as representing the actual state of a
study which abounds with difficulties and obscurities. In all important
cases of the occurrence of such supplementary or contradictory views in
this volume cross-references are given to the passages in which they are
expressed
The general scheme of the work may be explained in a few words.
The first two chapters are introductory. In Chapter I Sir Halford
Mackinder describes the India of the present day when railways and
telegraph lines have taken the place of the ancient routes, and gives an
account of those geographical features which have determined the course
of history in past times. The chapter is founded on Eight Lectures on
India prepared for the Visual Instruction Committee of the Colonial Office
and published in 1940. A similar acknowledgement of indebtedness is due
to the Government of India for the use which the editor has made of its
official publications, especially the Census Reports of 1901 and 1911 and
the Imperial Gazelleer of India, in Chapter II on peoples and languages, and
the sources of history. In Chapter III Dr P. Giles reviews the evidence
which Comparative Philology, aided by the ancient inscriptions of Western
Asia, supplies for a knowledge of the early culture of the Āryans or
"Wiros,' their original habitat, and the date of the migrations which even-
tually led some of their tribes into India. The next five chapters are
## p. vii (#11) #############################################
PREFACE
VII
devoted to accounts of political, social, and economic conditions as
represented in the earliest scriptures of the Brāhmans, Jains, and
Buddhists - Chapters IV and V by Prof. A. B. Keith on the Vedas and
Brāhmans, Chapters VI and VII by Dr J. Charpentier and Dr T. W.
Rhys Davids respectively on the earliest history of the Jains and
Buddhists, and Chapter VIII by Mrs Rhys Davids on economic conditions
in early Buddhist literature. The five chapters which follow extend this
investigation to the Brāhman sources for the history of the post-Vedic
period—Chapters IX-XII by Prof. E. Washburn Hopkins on the Sūtras,
epics, and law-books, and Chapter XIII by the editor on the Purāņas.
Up to this point the evidence has been gleaned almost entirely from
Indian sources and confined almost entirely to India. In the next four
chapters India is viewed in relation to other countries - Chapter XIV by
Prof. A. V. Williams Jackson on the ancient Persian dominions in India,
Chapters XV and XVI by Mr E. R. Bevan on the invasion of Alexander
the Great and the early Greek and Latin accounts of India, and Chapter
XVII by Dr G. Macdonald on the Hellenic kingdoms of Syria. Bactria,
and Parthia. In Chapters XVIII-XX the first great historical empire that
of the Mauryas, is described by Dr F. W. Thomas ; and in Chapters
XXI-XXIII the editor deals with the powers which arose on the ruins of
the Maurya empire--the Indian native states, the Greek successors of
Alexander the Great, and the Scythian and Parthian invaders. In Chapter
XXIV Dr L. D, Barnett sums up what is known of the early history of
Southern India ; and in Chapter XXV he gives an analysis of the history
of Ceylon which possesses a continuity in striking contrast to the fragmen-
tary records of the kingdoms of the sub-continent. In the final Chapter
XXVI Sir John Marshall describes the ancient monuments, and traces the
various phases of Indian art from its beginnings to the first century A. D.
The editor desires to thank all the contributors for the courtesy with
which they have received and carried out his suggestions. He is doubly
indebted to Sir John Marshall, Dr L. D. Barnett, Dr George Macdonald,
Dr F. W. Thomas, and Mr E. R. Bevan for much valuable advice and for
their kind help in reading the proofs of chapters other than their own. He
gratefully acknowledges also the assistance which he has received from
Colonel Haig and from Sir Theodore Morison, the editors in charge of the
Muhammadan and British sections of the Cambridge History of India (vols,
III-IV and vovi respectively).
The preparation of vol. ii, which will deal with the period from the
downfall of the Çāka and Pahlava empire in the middle of the first century
A. D. to the Muhammadan conquests, is attended with unusual difficulties,
caused partly by the vast extent and partly by the fragmentary character of
## p. viii (#12) ############################################
VIII
PREFACE
the historical records ; but it is at least to be hoped that its appearance may
not be delayed by disasters such as that which has impeded the publication
of vol. 1.
The printing of this volume began in 1913, and more than half the
chapters were in type in 1914, when war made further progress impossible
until the end of 1918. Since then the work has been completed, all the
earlier chapters have been revised, and no effort has been spared to make
the book representative of the state of early Indian historical studies at the
end of 1920.
The system of chronology, which has been adopted for the periods of
Çaka and Kushāņa rule, needs some explanation. The chronological
difficulties connected with the Vikrama era of 58 B. C. and the Çaka era of
78 A. D, are well known ; and it is universally admitted that the names which
these eras bear were given to them at a later date, and afford no clue to
their origin. The view maintained in this work is that the eras in question
mark the establishment of the Çaka and Kushāņa suzerainties. The idea of
suzerainty, that is to say, supreme lordship over all the kings of a large
region-'the whole earth', as the poets call it - is deeply rooted in Indian
conceptions of government; and the foundation of an era is recognised as
one of the attributes of this exalted position. Now there is abundant
evidence that the Çaka empire attained its height in the reign of Azes I
and the Kushāna empire in the reign of Kanishka. It is natural to suppose
therefore that such imperial eras must have been established in these
reigns, and that their starting point in both cases was the accession of the
Euzerain.
The story of the foundation and extension of later eras in Indian
history - the Gupta era and the era of Harsha, for example--can be clearly
traced. All such undoubted illustrations of the process are seen to imply
the existence of certain political conditions - the relations of suzerain to
feudatories, in fact. It is not necessarily, or indeed usually, the founder of
a dynasty who is also the founder of an era ; but it is that member of the
royal house who succeeded in asserting ‘universal sway and in reducing his
neighbours to the status of feudatories. The use of the era can be shown,
in well-ascertained cases, to have spread from the suzerain to the feuda-
tories. Is there any reason to suppose that extension in the contrary
direction - from feudatory to suzerain-has ever taken place or could
possibly take place ?
It has been suggested that the Vikrama era originated with the
Mālavas, whose name it sometimes bears in inscriptions. They were a
people, apparently of no great political importance, who can be traced in
the Punjab and Rājputāna centuries before they settled in Mālwā, the tract
## p. ix (#13) ##############################################
PREFACE
IX
of Central India which now bears their name ; and they were almost
certainly, like the other peoples of these regions, included in the Çaka
empire at one period of their history. Is it conceivable that they could
have initiated the Vikrama era, and that a great suzerain like Gondo.
pharnes, who almost beyond doubt dates his. Takht-i-Bahi inscription in
this era, stood indebted to them for its use? The Vikrama era had
undoubtedly become the traditional reckoning of the Mālavas in the fifth
century A. D. ; but the most obvious explanation of the fact is that they had
inherited it from their former overlords.
In the same way, the later name of the era of 78 A. D. may be due to
its use for centuries by the Çaka satraps of Western India ; but they can
scarcely have founded this era. Their very title 'satrap’ shows that they
were originally feudatories ; and they were most probably feudatories of
the Kushāņas. If so, they would use the era of their suzerains as a matter
of course.
Thus all a priori considerations favour the views which are adopted
in this work in regard to the origin of these eras ; and, as is pointed out in
Chapter XXIII, the Taxila inscription of the year 136, which first suggested
to Sir John Marshall the possibility of an ‘era of Azes', may also furnish
positive evidence of their correctness. It has been necessary to deal with
these chronological problems somewhat at length because of their im-
portance. If the theories here maintained are accepted, there will be an end
to the worst of the perplexities which have for so long obscured the history
of N. W. India during the centuries immediately before and after the
Christian era, and the dates in all the known inscriptions of the period will
be determined, with the single exception of that which occurs in the Taxila
copper-plate of Maues, and which, as is suggested, may be in some era
which the Çakas brought with them from eastern Irān into India.
The munificence of Sir Dorabji Tata has enabled the Syndics of the
University Press to illustrate this volume more lavishly than would have
been possible without such generous help. Mr G. F. Hill and Mr J. Allan
of the British Museum have most kindly provided casts of the coins
figured in Plates I–VII ; and Sir John Marshall has enhanced the value of
his chapter on the monuments by supplying photographs, which were in
many cases specially taken for the illustrations in Plates IX-XXXIV.
The index has been made by Mr E. J. Thomas of Emmanuel College
and the University Library. Modern place-names are, with very few
exceptions, given as they appear in the index-volume of the Imperial
Gazetteer of India. For the spelling of ancient names the system adopted
by Prof. Macdonell in his History of Sanskrit Literature has been followed.
This system has the double advantage of being strictly accurate and, at the
>
## p. x (#14) ###############################################
PREFACE
same time, of offering as few difficulties as possible for readers who are not
orientalists. The vowels should be pronounced as in Italian, with the
exception of a which has the indefinite sound so common in English, e. g. ,
in the word organ.
The vowels e and o are always long in Sanskrit, and
are therefore only marked as such in the non-Sanskritic names of Southern
India, in which it is necessary to distinguish them from the corresponding
short vowels.
E. J. R.
Sr John's COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE,
18 August 1921.
## p. xi (#15) ##############################################
TABLE OF 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
PAGE
1
. . .
. . .
1
2
2-3
3
4
4
: : :
5
::
The four sub-continents of Asia
Ceylon ; Colombo, the strategic centre of British sea-power in the Indian
Ocean
The Malabar and Coromandel coasts ; the Western and Eastern Ghāts
The Carnatic ; Travancore ; Cochin
The Gap of Coimbatore or Pālghāt
The plateau between the Ghāts; Mysore
Climate of the southern extremity of India
Madras ; some causes of the comparative isolation of southern India
Burma, the connecting link between the Far East and the Middle East
The geography of Burma
The geography of Bengal
Calcutta
Countries of the Himālayan fringe
Valley of the Brahmaputra
The Plain of the Ganges and Jumna
Central India
The situation of Bombay
The Marāthā country ; Hyderābād ; the Deccan plateau
The Central Provinces ; Baroda
:
Kāthiāwār and Cutch
The Himālayan barrier
Rājputāna ; historical importance of the great Indian desert and the Delhi
0
Gateway
The north-west frontier
The plain of the Indus
Routes leading into N. W. India
Kashmir
Gilgit ; Chitrāl; the Karakoram ; the Hindu Kush
Lateral communication between the Khyber and Bolān routes
The Hindu Kush and the Indus as boundaries between India and Irān
Summary of the principal physical features of the sub-continent
i ii
5
7
8
9,22,23
10
11
13
15
16
17
17,18
18
. . .
. . .
::
: : :
. . .
18
23
24,27
25
29
29
29
30
30
## p. xii (#16) #############################################
XII
CONTENTS
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
PAGE
33
. . .
34
: : : : :
: : : : : :
36
36
43
47
Varieties of race, speech, and culture. . .
Western and eastern invaders
Natural and ethnographical divisions
The seven chief physical types
The four families of speech
The caste-system
B. SOURCES OF HISTORY
Prehistoric archaeology
Ancient literatures
Foreign writers
Inscribed monuments and coins
The Ancient alphabets
Progress of research . . .
: : : : : :
: : : : : :
: : : : : :
50
50
52
54
55
55
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
58,63
The Wiros and their original habitat
59
Their migrations
63
Evidence of the inscriptions of Boghaz-köi
64
Irānians and Indo-Āryans
65
Āryan names in the inscriptions of Mesopotamia
67
. . .
. . .
: : : : :
: : : : :
CHAPTER IV
THE AGE OF THE RIGVEDA
. . .
By A BERRIEDALE KEITH, D. C. L. , D. Litt. , Regius Professor
or Sanskrit and Comparative Philology in the University of
Edinburgh, formerly Scholar of Balliol College, Oxford
The hymns of the Rigveda
Geography
Fauna; peoples
Social organisation
Origins of the caste system
Political organisation
Warlike and peacefull avocations
Dress, food, and
Religion
The beginnings of philosophy
Chronology of Vedic literature
: : : : : : : : :
69,96
70
72
79
82
84
88
90
92
96
98
. .
amusements
. . .
: : : :
## p. xiii (#17) ############################################
XIII
CONTENTS
CHAPTER V.
THE PERIOD OF THE LATER SAMHITĀS, THE BRAHMAŅAS,
THE ĀRAŅYAKAS, AND THE UPANISHADS
By Professor A. BERRIEDALE KEITH
PAGE
: : : :
Vedic literature after the period of the Rigveda . .
Extension of Aryan civilisation to the Middle Country
Peoples of the Middle Country
The more eastern peoples
Changes in social conditions
Government and the administration of justice
Industry ; social life ; the arts and sciences
Religion and philosophy
Language
Criteria of date
i ii ::
1
: : : : :
102
104
105
109
111, 120
116
121
126
130
131
: : : : : :
::
. . .
CHAPTER
VI
THE HISTORY OF THE JAINS
By JARL CAARPENTIER, Ph. D. , University of Upsala
Jainism in its relation to Brāhmanism and Buddhism
The tirthakaras or 'prophets' ; Pārcva
Mabāvīra
Jains and Buddhists
Mahāvīra's rivals, Gosāla and Jamāli
The Jain church after the death of Mahāvīra
The great schism : Çvetāmbaras and Digambaras
Settlements in Western India
Organisation of the religious and lay communities
Blanks in Jain ecclesiastical history
CHAPTER VII
134
136
138
143
145
140
147
148
150
151
. . .
: :
::
. . .
. . .
. . .
THE HISTORY OF THE BUDDHISTS
By T. W. Rays Davids, LL. D. , Ph. D. , D. Sc. , formerly Professor of Pāli
and Buddhist Literature at University College, London, and Professor
of Comparative Religion in the University of Manchester
Pre-Buddhistic
152
India in the Buddha's time; the clans
155
The kingdoms ;
Kosala
158
Magadha
162
Avanti
165
The Vamsas
166
The first great gap
167
169
Chandagutta
170
Age of the authorities used
Growth of Buddhist literature from the time of Buddha down to Asoka
175
. . .
: : :
. . .
: : : : :
: :
iii :
::
. . .
: :
## p. xiv (#18) #############################################
XIV
CONTENTS
CHAPTER VIII
ECONOMIC CONDITIONS ACCORDING TO EARLY
BUDDHIST LITERATURE
: :
::
: : : :
. . .
: :
:
. . .
::
. . .
. .
192
By Mrs C. A. F. Rays Davids M. A. D. Litt. , Fellow of
University College, London
PAGE
Rural economy
176
Cities ; villages ; the land
178
Agriculture
181
Labour and industry
183
Social conditions
185
Trade and commerce
187
Trade centres and routes
189
Methods of exchange and prices
Securities and interest
1 94
General conclusions
195
CHAPTER IX
THE PERIOD OF THE SŪTRAS EPICS AND LAW-BOOKS
By E. WASHBURN HOPKINS Ph. D. , LLD. , Professor of Sanskrit and
Comparative Philology in Yale University
Language of the later Brāhman literature
197
Social conditions as reflected in the Brāhman and Buddhist books
198
Outlines of chronology
199
Causes of the wider political outlook
202
CHAPTER X
: :
. . .
FAMILY LIFE AND SOCIAL CUSTOMS AS THEY APPEAR IN
THE SŪTRAS
. . .
; :
. . .
i :
::
. . .
. . . . . .
. . .
By Professor E. WASHBURN HOPKINS
The Sūtra literature
Gșihya Sūtras . . .
Oblations to spirits and gods
Rites to avert disaster and disease
Substitution of images of meal for sacrificial animals
Marriage ceremonies
Caste and family
Contents and arrangemont of the Gșihya Sūtras . . .
The life represented is rural, not urban
Minor superstitions
Ārya and Çüdra ; Dharma Sūtras
The beginnings of civil and criminal law ; inheritance
Duties of the king
Taxes ; status of women ; ordeals
Legal rates of interest
Religion and philosophy
Relative ages of the Sūtras
203
204
205
207
208
208
210
211
212
213
215
217
219
221
222
222
222
. . .
: : :
. . .
::
: : : :
: : : :
: :
## p. xv (#19) ##############################################
CONTENTS
X
CHAPTER XI
THE PRINCES AND PEOPLES OF THE EPIC POEMS
By Professor E. WASHBURN HOPKINS
PAGE
::
: :
. . .
. . .
. . .
231
The two chief varieties of epic poetry
224
Sources of the Mahābhārta
225
Narrative and didactic interpolations
228
The characters partly historical and partly mythical
229
Date of the poem in its present form
230
Features common to the Mahābhārta and the Rāmāyana
Social conditions in the Sanskrit epics and in Buddhist works of the same period 231
The Story of the Mahābhārata . . .
233
The Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyana contrasted
235
Earlier and later inoral ideals in the Mahābhārata
236
Knights, priests, commoners, and slaves
237
The king and his ministers
242
Religious and philosophical views of the epics
243
244
Peoples traditionally engaged in the great war
The genealogies
246
CHAPTER XII
: :
. . . . . .
. . . .
: : :
i:
1
THE GROWTH OF LAW AND LEGAL INSTITUTIONS
. . .
: :
. . .
. . .
. . .
: :
: :
. . .
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UC-NRLF
$B 324 260
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BERKELEY
LID RY
UNIVEITY OF
CALL, ORNIA
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1
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H
1
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THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF INDIA
IN SIX VOLUMES
VOLUME I
ANCIENT INDIA
## p. ii (#6) ###############################################
THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF INDIA
SIX VOLUMES
Vol.
Vol.
Vol.
Vol.
II
III
IV
V
Under Prepiration.
Rs. 35. 00
Rs. 35. 00
Turks and Afghans
The Mughal Period
The British India
1497-1958
The Indian Empire.
1858-1947
. . .
Rs. 39. 00
Vol.
VI
. . .
Rs. 30. 00
**
*
THE
CAMBRIDGE
SHORTER HISTORY OF INDIA
Edited by Doduell
Part I.
Part II.
Part III.
COMPLETE,
Ancient India
Muslim India
British India
R- 4. 50
Rs. 6. 00
Rs. 8. 00
Rs. 16. 00
## p. iii (#7) ##############################################
THE
CAMBRIDGE
HISTORY OF INDIA
VOLUME I
ANCIENT
INDIA
EDITED BY
E. J. RAPSON, M. A.
PROFESSOR OF SANSKRIT IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
AND FELLOW OF ST JOHN'S COLLEGE.
SECOND INDIAN REPRINT
1962
S. CHAND &
& CO. ,
DELHI-NEW DELHI-JULLUNDUR
LUCKNOW-BOMBAY
## p. iv (#8) ###############################################
L'
Published in India by S. Chand & Co. by arrangement with
Cambridge University Press, London.
S.
CHAND &
CO.
Ram Nagar
Fountain
Lamington Road
Mai Hiran Gate
Lal Bagh
New Delhi
Delhi
Bombay
Jullundur City
Lucknow
LOAN STACK
Price : Rs. 40/-
Printed at Super Press, New Delhi.
## p. v (#9) ################################################
.
DS124
C2
ril
PREFACE
l
THE present volume deals with the history of ancient India from
the earliest times to about the middle of the first century A. D. ;
and it attempts to represent the stage of progress which research has now
reached in its task of recovering from the past the outlines of a history
which, only a few years ago, was commonly supposed to be irretrievably
lost. Well within the memory of contributors to this volume it was the
fashion to say that there was no history of India before the Muhammadan
conquests in the eleventh century A. D. , and the general opinion seemed to
be summed up in the dictum of the cynic who roundly asserted that all
supposed dates for earlier events were like skittles-set up simply to be
bowleb down again. But this gibe, not quite justifiable even when it was
uttered, could not be repeated at the present day. It has lost its point : it
is no longer even approximately true.
Regarded as a record of the character and achievements of great
leaders of men, this history indeed is, and must always remain, sadly
deficient. Of all the conquerors and administrators who appear in this
volume there are two only - Alexander the Great and, in a less degree,
Açoka —whose personality is at all intimately known to us ; in the case of
others the bare memory of some of their deeds has been preserved ; the
rest have become mere names to which research has given a time and a
place. But the fragments of fact which have been rescued from the past
are now sufficiently numerous and well established to enable us to construct
chronological and geographical framework for the political history of many
of the kingdoms and empires of ancient India ; and into this framework
may be fitted the history of social institutions, which is reflected with
unusual clearness in the ancient literatures.
The manner in which modern scholarship has succeeded in throwing
light on the dark ages of India, and in revealing order where all seemed
to be chaos, is briefly indicated in the latter section of Chapter II which
deals with the sources of history. The story of rediscovery is a long record
of struggles with problems which were once thought to be insoluble, and
of the ultimate triumphs of patience and ingenuity. It begins in 1793,
when Sir William Jones supplied 'the sheet-anchor of Indian chronology'
by his identification of the Sandrocottus of Alexander's historians with
the Chandragupta of Sanskrit literature ; and its great epoch is ushered
in by the decipherment of the long-forgotten alphabets of the ancient
Indian inscriptions by James Prinsep in 1834. The first comprehensive
916
## p. vi (#10) ##############################################
vi
PREFACE
summary of historical gains appeared in 1858, when Christian Lassen
published the first volume of his Indische Alterthumskunde : and in recent
years other summaries have been made by Dr Vincent Smith (Early
History of India, 1st edn. 1904, 2nd edn. 1908, 3rd edn. 1914), by Dr L. D.
Barnett (Indian Antiquities, 1913), and, on a smaller scale, by the editor of
this volunue (Ancient India, 1914).
The Cambridge History of India makes a new departure. The litera-
ture of the subject has become so vast, and is still growing with such
rapidity, that the best hope of securing a real advance in the study now
lies in a division of labour among scholars who have explored at first hand
the main sources of information. This volume therefore follows the plan
adopted in the modern and medieval histories published by the Cambridge
University Press. It is the outcome of the combination of a number of
investigators with an editor whose function it has been to coordinate, so
far as seemed possible or advisable, results obtained independently. That
this plan is not without its disadvantages is obvious. All cooperative enter-
prises of the kind involve necessarily some reiteration and also some
discrepancy; and the questions which an editor must decide are how
far repeated discussions of the same topic contribute to a fuller knowledge
or are merely redundant, and how far different opinions admit of reconcilia-
tion or should be allowed to remain as representing the actual state of a
study which abounds with difficulties and obscurities. In all important
cases of the occurrence of such supplementary or contradictory views in
this volume cross-references are given to the passages in which they are
expressed
The general scheme of the work may be explained in a few words.
The first two chapters are introductory. In Chapter I Sir Halford
Mackinder describes the India of the present day when railways and
telegraph lines have taken the place of the ancient routes, and gives an
account of those geographical features which have determined the course
of history in past times. The chapter is founded on Eight Lectures on
India prepared for the Visual Instruction Committee of the Colonial Office
and published in 1940. A similar acknowledgement of indebtedness is due
to the Government of India for the use which the editor has made of its
official publications, especially the Census Reports of 1901 and 1911 and
the Imperial Gazelleer of India, in Chapter II on peoples and languages, and
the sources of history. In Chapter III Dr P. Giles reviews the evidence
which Comparative Philology, aided by the ancient inscriptions of Western
Asia, supplies for a knowledge of the early culture of the Āryans or
"Wiros,' their original habitat, and the date of the migrations which even-
tually led some of their tribes into India. The next five chapters are
## p. vii (#11) #############################################
PREFACE
VII
devoted to accounts of political, social, and economic conditions as
represented in the earliest scriptures of the Brāhmans, Jains, and
Buddhists - Chapters IV and V by Prof. A. B. Keith on the Vedas and
Brāhmans, Chapters VI and VII by Dr J. Charpentier and Dr T. W.
Rhys Davids respectively on the earliest history of the Jains and
Buddhists, and Chapter VIII by Mrs Rhys Davids on economic conditions
in early Buddhist literature. The five chapters which follow extend this
investigation to the Brāhman sources for the history of the post-Vedic
period—Chapters IX-XII by Prof. E. Washburn Hopkins on the Sūtras,
epics, and law-books, and Chapter XIII by the editor on the Purāņas.
Up to this point the evidence has been gleaned almost entirely from
Indian sources and confined almost entirely to India. In the next four
chapters India is viewed in relation to other countries - Chapter XIV by
Prof. A. V. Williams Jackson on the ancient Persian dominions in India,
Chapters XV and XVI by Mr E. R. Bevan on the invasion of Alexander
the Great and the early Greek and Latin accounts of India, and Chapter
XVII by Dr G. Macdonald on the Hellenic kingdoms of Syria. Bactria,
and Parthia. In Chapters XVIII-XX the first great historical empire that
of the Mauryas, is described by Dr F. W. Thomas ; and in Chapters
XXI-XXIII the editor deals with the powers which arose on the ruins of
the Maurya empire--the Indian native states, the Greek successors of
Alexander the Great, and the Scythian and Parthian invaders. In Chapter
XXIV Dr L. D, Barnett sums up what is known of the early history of
Southern India ; and in Chapter XXV he gives an analysis of the history
of Ceylon which possesses a continuity in striking contrast to the fragmen-
tary records of the kingdoms of the sub-continent. In the final Chapter
XXVI Sir John Marshall describes the ancient monuments, and traces the
various phases of Indian art from its beginnings to the first century A. D.
The editor desires to thank all the contributors for the courtesy with
which they have received and carried out his suggestions. He is doubly
indebted to Sir John Marshall, Dr L. D. Barnett, Dr George Macdonald,
Dr F. W. Thomas, and Mr E. R. Bevan for much valuable advice and for
their kind help in reading the proofs of chapters other than their own. He
gratefully acknowledges also the assistance which he has received from
Colonel Haig and from Sir Theodore Morison, the editors in charge of the
Muhammadan and British sections of the Cambridge History of India (vols,
III-IV and vovi respectively).
The preparation of vol. ii, which will deal with the period from the
downfall of the Çāka and Pahlava empire in the middle of the first century
A. D. to the Muhammadan conquests, is attended with unusual difficulties,
caused partly by the vast extent and partly by the fragmentary character of
## p. viii (#12) ############################################
VIII
PREFACE
the historical records ; but it is at least to be hoped that its appearance may
not be delayed by disasters such as that which has impeded the publication
of vol. 1.
The printing of this volume began in 1913, and more than half the
chapters were in type in 1914, when war made further progress impossible
until the end of 1918. Since then the work has been completed, all the
earlier chapters have been revised, and no effort has been spared to make
the book representative of the state of early Indian historical studies at the
end of 1920.
The system of chronology, which has been adopted for the periods of
Çaka and Kushāņa rule, needs some explanation. The chronological
difficulties connected with the Vikrama era of 58 B. C. and the Çaka era of
78 A. D, are well known ; and it is universally admitted that the names which
these eras bear were given to them at a later date, and afford no clue to
their origin. The view maintained in this work is that the eras in question
mark the establishment of the Çaka and Kushāņa suzerainties. The idea of
suzerainty, that is to say, supreme lordship over all the kings of a large
region-'the whole earth', as the poets call it - is deeply rooted in Indian
conceptions of government; and the foundation of an era is recognised as
one of the attributes of this exalted position. Now there is abundant
evidence that the Çaka empire attained its height in the reign of Azes I
and the Kushāna empire in the reign of Kanishka. It is natural to suppose
therefore that such imperial eras must have been established in these
reigns, and that their starting point in both cases was the accession of the
Euzerain.
The story of the foundation and extension of later eras in Indian
history - the Gupta era and the era of Harsha, for example--can be clearly
traced. All such undoubted illustrations of the process are seen to imply
the existence of certain political conditions - the relations of suzerain to
feudatories, in fact. It is not necessarily, or indeed usually, the founder of
a dynasty who is also the founder of an era ; but it is that member of the
royal house who succeeded in asserting ‘universal sway and in reducing his
neighbours to the status of feudatories. The use of the era can be shown,
in well-ascertained cases, to have spread from the suzerain to the feuda-
tories. Is there any reason to suppose that extension in the contrary
direction - from feudatory to suzerain-has ever taken place or could
possibly take place ?
It has been suggested that the Vikrama era originated with the
Mālavas, whose name it sometimes bears in inscriptions. They were a
people, apparently of no great political importance, who can be traced in
the Punjab and Rājputāna centuries before they settled in Mālwā, the tract
## p. ix (#13) ##############################################
PREFACE
IX
of Central India which now bears their name ; and they were almost
certainly, like the other peoples of these regions, included in the Çaka
empire at one period of their history. Is it conceivable that they could
have initiated the Vikrama era, and that a great suzerain like Gondo.
pharnes, who almost beyond doubt dates his. Takht-i-Bahi inscription in
this era, stood indebted to them for its use? The Vikrama era had
undoubtedly become the traditional reckoning of the Mālavas in the fifth
century A. D. ; but the most obvious explanation of the fact is that they had
inherited it from their former overlords.
In the same way, the later name of the era of 78 A. D. may be due to
its use for centuries by the Çaka satraps of Western India ; but they can
scarcely have founded this era. Their very title 'satrap’ shows that they
were originally feudatories ; and they were most probably feudatories of
the Kushāņas. If so, they would use the era of their suzerains as a matter
of course.
Thus all a priori considerations favour the views which are adopted
in this work in regard to the origin of these eras ; and, as is pointed out in
Chapter XXIII, the Taxila inscription of the year 136, which first suggested
to Sir John Marshall the possibility of an ‘era of Azes', may also furnish
positive evidence of their correctness. It has been necessary to deal with
these chronological problems somewhat at length because of their im-
portance. If the theories here maintained are accepted, there will be an end
to the worst of the perplexities which have for so long obscured the history
of N. W. India during the centuries immediately before and after the
Christian era, and the dates in all the known inscriptions of the period will
be determined, with the single exception of that which occurs in the Taxila
copper-plate of Maues, and which, as is suggested, may be in some era
which the Çakas brought with them from eastern Irān into India.
The munificence of Sir Dorabji Tata has enabled the Syndics of the
University Press to illustrate this volume more lavishly than would have
been possible without such generous help. Mr G. F. Hill and Mr J. Allan
of the British Museum have most kindly provided casts of the coins
figured in Plates I–VII ; and Sir John Marshall has enhanced the value of
his chapter on the monuments by supplying photographs, which were in
many cases specially taken for the illustrations in Plates IX-XXXIV.
The index has been made by Mr E. J. Thomas of Emmanuel College
and the University Library. Modern place-names are, with very few
exceptions, given as they appear in the index-volume of the Imperial
Gazetteer of India. For the spelling of ancient names the system adopted
by Prof. Macdonell in his History of Sanskrit Literature has been followed.
This system has the double advantage of being strictly accurate and, at the
>
## p. x (#14) ###############################################
PREFACE
same time, of offering as few difficulties as possible for readers who are not
orientalists. The vowels should be pronounced as in Italian, with the
exception of a which has the indefinite sound so common in English, e. g. ,
in the word organ.
The vowels e and o are always long in Sanskrit, and
are therefore only marked as such in the non-Sanskritic names of Southern
India, in which it is necessary to distinguish them from the corresponding
short vowels.
E. J. R.
Sr John's COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE,
18 August 1921.
## p. xi (#15) ##############################################
TABLE OF 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
PAGE
1
. . .
. . .
1
2
2-3
3
4
4
: : :
5
::
The four sub-continents of Asia
Ceylon ; Colombo, the strategic centre of British sea-power in the Indian
Ocean
The Malabar and Coromandel coasts ; the Western and Eastern Ghāts
The Carnatic ; Travancore ; Cochin
The Gap of Coimbatore or Pālghāt
The plateau between the Ghāts; Mysore
Climate of the southern extremity of India
Madras ; some causes of the comparative isolation of southern India
Burma, the connecting link between the Far East and the Middle East
The geography of Burma
The geography of Bengal
Calcutta
Countries of the Himālayan fringe
Valley of the Brahmaputra
The Plain of the Ganges and Jumna
Central India
The situation of Bombay
The Marāthā country ; Hyderābād ; the Deccan plateau
The Central Provinces ; Baroda
:
Kāthiāwār and Cutch
The Himālayan barrier
Rājputāna ; historical importance of the great Indian desert and the Delhi
0
Gateway
The north-west frontier
The plain of the Indus
Routes leading into N. W. India
Kashmir
Gilgit ; Chitrāl; the Karakoram ; the Hindu Kush
Lateral communication between the Khyber and Bolān routes
The Hindu Kush and the Indus as boundaries between India and Irān
Summary of the principal physical features of the sub-continent
i ii
5
7
8
9,22,23
10
11
13
15
16
17
17,18
18
. . .
. . .
::
: : :
. . .
18
23
24,27
25
29
29
29
30
30
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XII
CONTENTS
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
PAGE
33
. . .
34
: : : : :
: : : : : :
36
36
43
47
Varieties of race, speech, and culture. . .
Western and eastern invaders
Natural and ethnographical divisions
The seven chief physical types
The four families of speech
The caste-system
B. SOURCES OF HISTORY
Prehistoric archaeology
Ancient literatures
Foreign writers
Inscribed monuments and coins
The Ancient alphabets
Progress of research . . .
: : : : : :
: : : : : :
: : : : : :
50
50
52
54
55
55
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
58,63
The Wiros and their original habitat
59
Their migrations
63
Evidence of the inscriptions of Boghaz-köi
64
Irānians and Indo-Āryans
65
Āryan names in the inscriptions of Mesopotamia
67
. . .
. . .
: : : : :
: : : : :
CHAPTER IV
THE AGE OF THE RIGVEDA
. . .
By A BERRIEDALE KEITH, D. C. L. , D. Litt. , Regius Professor
or Sanskrit and Comparative Philology in the University of
Edinburgh, formerly Scholar of Balliol College, Oxford
The hymns of the Rigveda
Geography
Fauna; peoples
Social organisation
Origins of the caste system
Political organisation
Warlike and peacefull avocations
Dress, food, and
Religion
The beginnings of philosophy
Chronology of Vedic literature
: : : : : : : : :
69,96
70
72
79
82
84
88
90
92
96
98
. .
amusements
. . .
: : : :
## p. xiii (#17) ############################################
XIII
CONTENTS
CHAPTER V.
THE PERIOD OF THE LATER SAMHITĀS, THE BRAHMAŅAS,
THE ĀRAŅYAKAS, AND THE UPANISHADS
By Professor A. BERRIEDALE KEITH
PAGE
: : : :
Vedic literature after the period of the Rigveda . .
Extension of Aryan civilisation to the Middle Country
Peoples of the Middle Country
The more eastern peoples
Changes in social conditions
Government and the administration of justice
Industry ; social life ; the arts and sciences
Religion and philosophy
Language
Criteria of date
i ii ::
1
: : : : :
102
104
105
109
111, 120
116
121
126
130
131
: : : : : :
::
. . .
CHAPTER
VI
THE HISTORY OF THE JAINS
By JARL CAARPENTIER, Ph. D. , University of Upsala
Jainism in its relation to Brāhmanism and Buddhism
The tirthakaras or 'prophets' ; Pārcva
Mabāvīra
Jains and Buddhists
Mahāvīra's rivals, Gosāla and Jamāli
The Jain church after the death of Mahāvīra
The great schism : Çvetāmbaras and Digambaras
Settlements in Western India
Organisation of the religious and lay communities
Blanks in Jain ecclesiastical history
CHAPTER VII
134
136
138
143
145
140
147
148
150
151
. . .
: :
::
. . .
. . .
. . .
THE HISTORY OF THE BUDDHISTS
By T. W. Rays Davids, LL. D. , Ph. D. , D. Sc. , formerly Professor of Pāli
and Buddhist Literature at University College, London, and Professor
of Comparative Religion in the University of Manchester
Pre-Buddhistic
152
India in the Buddha's time; the clans
155
The kingdoms ;
Kosala
158
Magadha
162
Avanti
165
The Vamsas
166
The first great gap
167
169
Chandagutta
170
Age of the authorities used
Growth of Buddhist literature from the time of Buddha down to Asoka
175
. . .
: : :
. . .
: : : : :
: :
iii :
::
. . .
: :
## p. xiv (#18) #############################################
XIV
CONTENTS
CHAPTER VIII
ECONOMIC CONDITIONS ACCORDING TO EARLY
BUDDHIST LITERATURE
: :
::
: : : :
. . .
: :
:
. . .
::
. . .
. .
192
By Mrs C. A. F. Rays Davids M. A. D. Litt. , Fellow of
University College, London
PAGE
Rural economy
176
Cities ; villages ; the land
178
Agriculture
181
Labour and industry
183
Social conditions
185
Trade and commerce
187
Trade centres and routes
189
Methods of exchange and prices
Securities and interest
1 94
General conclusions
195
CHAPTER IX
THE PERIOD OF THE SŪTRAS EPICS AND LAW-BOOKS
By E. WASHBURN HOPKINS Ph. D. , LLD. , Professor of Sanskrit and
Comparative Philology in Yale University
Language of the later Brāhman literature
197
Social conditions as reflected in the Brāhman and Buddhist books
198
Outlines of chronology
199
Causes of the wider political outlook
202
CHAPTER X
: :
. . .
FAMILY LIFE AND SOCIAL CUSTOMS AS THEY APPEAR IN
THE SŪTRAS
. . .
; :
. . .
i :
::
. . .
. . . . . .
. . .
By Professor E. WASHBURN HOPKINS
The Sūtra literature
Gșihya Sūtras . . .
Oblations to spirits and gods
Rites to avert disaster and disease
Substitution of images of meal for sacrificial animals
Marriage ceremonies
Caste and family
Contents and arrangemont of the Gșihya Sūtras . . .
The life represented is rural, not urban
Minor superstitions
Ārya and Çüdra ; Dharma Sūtras
The beginnings of civil and criminal law ; inheritance
Duties of the king
Taxes ; status of women ; ordeals
Legal rates of interest
Religion and philosophy
Relative ages of the Sūtras
203
204
205
207
208
208
210
211
212
213
215
217
219
221
222
222
222
. . .
: : :
. . .
::
: : : :
: : : :
: :
## p. xv (#19) ##############################################
CONTENTS
X
CHAPTER XI
THE PRINCES AND PEOPLES OF THE EPIC POEMS
By Professor E. WASHBURN HOPKINS
PAGE
::
: :
. . .
. . .
. . .
231
The two chief varieties of epic poetry
224
Sources of the Mahābhārta
225
Narrative and didactic interpolations
228
The characters partly historical and partly mythical
229
Date of the poem in its present form
230
Features common to the Mahābhārta and the Rāmāyana
Social conditions in the Sanskrit epics and in Buddhist works of the same period 231
The Story of the Mahābhārata . . .
233
The Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyana contrasted
235
Earlier and later inoral ideals in the Mahābhārata
236
Knights, priests, commoners, and slaves
237
The king and his ministers
242
Religious and philosophical views of the epics
243
244
Peoples traditionally engaged in the great war
The genealogies
246
CHAPTER XII
: :
. . . . . .
. . . .
: : :
i:
1
THE GROWTH OF LAW AND LEGAL INSTITUTIONS
. . .
: :
. . .
. . .
. . .
: :
: :
. . .
