18 



INDIA. 



I! : 



Gaur* occupying the northern and eastern parts of made, /rom which it appears that he lived IS91 years History. 

 ' J: r before Christ. This war was carried on by Krishna ^""Y"** 



and his Brother Bali Kama, against Jara S.'uidha, who 

 reigned in Magadha, and was distinguished^}' its cruel- 

 ty, and by the decisive and permanent political and re- 

 ligious changes which it produced. The brothers 

 having surprised their adversary in his capital, Raja- 

 griha, caused him to be split asunder. The ancient 

 worship of Siva, or Maha Deo, was nearly annihilated, 

 in order to introduce that of Vishnuor Hercules, Krish- 

 those who still adhered to the ancient religion 



na 



Divided in. 

 to four 

 kingdom , 

 B. C. WOO, 



KrcntilniU 

 hidorrto. 

 :t Cbml 



India; and five were called Dravira*. extending from 

 Cape Comorin to G literal The first state of the Gaurs, 

 comprehended all the Punjab, M far west as the Indus, 

 and south as GipVr.tt: it was called S.ircswata from its 

 The dominions of the Canyacubjas, a 

 warlike nation, comprehended part of the province of 

 Delhi, Oude, Agra, Serinngur, and probably Allahabad 

 and Cashmere. Tirhut extended from the Cusi to the 

 Gundhuc, and from the Ganges to the mountains of Ne- 

 panl. Bengala extended over the province of Bengal, 



and probably part of Bahar. L'tcala extended along were compelled to nee to the mountains, while the po- 



the snores of the Bay of Bengal, from Balasore to Go- litical as well as the religious followers of Krishna took 



davery, and inland as far as Sammalpoor. Dravira possession of the plains. At the period of this invasion, 



proper extended from Cape Comorin to between 12 there existed in the kingdom of Magadha, several war- 



and 13 degrees of north latitude. North of Dravira, like tribes, called Xetries; by these Krishna was not only 



was the kingdom of Carnatica ;' it occupied part of My- strenuously resisted, but his newly established power 



ore, the C'arnatic, and the shores of Coromandel : its was rendered insecure by their activity aud turbulence. 



name may be traced in the Carnatic on the east, and In order, therefore, to give security and stability to his 



Canara on the west coast. Tailingana extended over conquests, the Xetries were actually exterminated in 



the country between the Krishna and Godavery. The many of the provinces, and Sudras and other low castes 



country of Muru or the Maharashtras, now called the ' elevated in their stead. After the murder of Jara San- 



Mahrattas, occupied the district to the south of the Ner- dha, Bali Rama placed Sahadevati, the son of Jara, on 



builda, and the maritime country of the Kocan or Khan- the throne of his father ; but his authority was little 



dcish. Guru-ra, the modem Guzerat, seems not to more than nominal, as Bali retained for himself the 



have changed its ancient limits. At what period these greatest part of his conquests , the extent of these may 



ten great kingdoms of Bharata were formed, or when be inferred from the circumstances, that within his own 



they were mingled and redivided, is not known ; but territory, he built or restored Palipotra on the Ganges, 



many centuries before the Mahomedan conquest they Mahaballipooram to the south of Madras, and Pali Pu- 



had changed their names and relative importance, ra in the Decan ; and that Gada, another brother of 



About two thousand years before the birth of Christ, Krishna, was raised to the sovereignty of the country 



Bharata comprised four rich and powerful kingdoms, called after him Gadipoor, or Gazipoor, while many 



together with many subordinate principalities. Accord- other provinces were bestowed by Krishna on the prin- 



ing to the Puranas, or ancient books of the Hindoos, cipal of his followers. 



which treat of the creation, and of the genealogy of their Though it has been found so extremely difficult to invasion of 

 gods and heroes, these kingdoms acknowledged as their fix the era of Sesostris, and to free his history from Sesostris, 

 common head, the sovereign of the most powerful of events evidently either fabulous or highly exaggerated, 

 them, with whom they all united for mutual defence that many authors have been disposed totally to deny 

 gainst foreign invasion, and under whom, in time of its authenticity; yet it appears to us that no reasonable 

 war, they acted. At all other times, and in every doubts can be entertained that he invaded India. The 

 other respect, they were separate and independent circumstances of this invasion, the causes which gave 

 states. The kingdom of the Prachii, or Prasii, people rise to it, and the objects which he had in view, can- 

 of the east, was the most opulent and powerful : it not be ascertained ; but we are expressly informed by 

 comprehended the modern provinces of Bengal, Bahar, Diodorus Siculus, that he crossed the Ganges, and ad- 

 and part of Oude. The kingdom of Bejanagur, which vanced as far as the Eastern Ocean. His conquests, how- 

 ranked next that of the Prachii, comprized the whole ever, were not permanent, and indeed were so contrary 

 of the great Peninsula, from the Krishna to Cape Co- to the genius and habits of the Egyptians, that, on 

 morin. The third state extended from the Gulf of the death of Sesostris, they were entirely relinquish. 

 Cambay to the mouths of the Ganges, and from the ed. 



latitude of 22 to 17 north. The provinces of Lahore, The Persians under Darius Hystaspes obtained a ofthe'Per- 

 Multan, Delhi, and Ajmeer, constituted thelast of these firmer, though a less extensive empire in India, than s' a '<s about 

 kingdoms. The sole management of the internal po- the Egyptians. That monarch having subdued the So9 a c - 

 lice of all these kingdoms belonged to the rajahs of the countries which lie in a south east direction from the 

 several provinces, into which they were divided; but Caspian to the Oxus, turned his thoughts towards India, 

 these rajahs were tributary and responsible to their on which they bordered. In order to prepare himself 

 respective sovereigns. for this new enterprise, he appointed Scylax to explore 

 The only events in the history of Hindostan, prior the Indus and the country lying on its banks, from the 

 to the birth of Christ, of which we possess any direct upper part of its navigable course to its mouth. The 

 and clear information, either from the Greek and Ro- account which Darius received from Scylax of the popu- 

 naan authors, or from the ancient books of the Hin- lousness, fertility, and high cultivation ot this territory, 

 does, are the great war of the Mahabharat, the inva- incited the Persian monarch to aim at its conquest. 



War of tbt 



Mthabtu. 



rt 



A. D. 1391. 



sion of India by Sesostris, and by the Persians in the 

 reign of Darius Hystaspes ; and the transactions of the 

 reign of Chandra Gupta, the contemporary of Alexan- 

 der the Great. 



The rera of the war of the Mahabharat can be fixed 

 with considerable precision and accuracy : the heroes 

 of that war are expressly declared in the Hindoo books 

 to have been contemporaries with Parasara, in whose 

 time an observation of the place of the solstices was 



conquest. 



This he appears soon and easily to have accomplished ; 

 but his conquests did not extend beyond the district 

 watered by the Indus ; and of the circumstances at- 

 tending them, we are entirely ignorant. It would seem, 

 however, that he compelled some of the Indian princes 

 to acknowledge his dominion, by the payment of an 

 annual tribute ; for we learn from a Hindoo writer, 

 that the ostensible cause of the celebrated invasion of 

 India by Alexander the Great, was to levy this tribute, 



\ 



