40 Some conjectures on the progress of [Jan. 



merely approximate to the estimate of definite periods in the early his- 

 tory of Hindostan, in this stage of our knowledge appears impossible. 

 The key to an acquaintance with this most interesting subject is 

 beyond the limits of the land ; from the first time I endeavoured to 

 study in this matter, this conviction insensibly formed itself in my mind, 

 and I think recent discoveries, to which I will allude more particularly, 

 tend to prove its justness. If however, it were possible to identify the 

 Brahminical conquerors, moving at a period, just anterior to the events 

 of the Great War, from " between the two divine rivers Saraswati and 

 Drishadwati, the tract of land which sages have named Brahmavarta, 

 because it was frequented by gods,"* — in these liot-ii-no of the monu- 

 ments, — these T^T 5 !: perhaps of their own Sanscrit, — these chario- 

 teers, the title in which they took pride, even like " Satyaki the great 

 charioteer" of the Mahabharat, — we should have valuable corrobora- 

 tion of the present received, but hardly proved, opinion, that this 

 movement took place from the sixteenth to the fourteenth century 

 before our era.f The irrefragable testimony of monuments added to 

 ethnological evidences not less strong, conjoin with what there is of 

 history, and that description of grave tradition which recorded in the 

 legislation of a people, has been at all times admitted to rank as history, 

 and all combine to show us the quarter whence these conquerors came, 

 the way they took, the spots at which they halted on their way to this 

 country, which they enriched with their language, their literature, and 

 such a description of unprogressive civilization £ as their institutions 

 admitted. I think we have been now able to time an epoch in their 

 progress by finding them again in collision with their congeners of 

 Egypt, during the era in which these went forth over many lands, 

 avenging the insult of a long subjection by making themselves terrible 

 as conquerors, or, as apparently with the Rot-ii-no, valued as allies or 

 protectors. 



* Manu, II. SI. 17. 



f The peculiar four-spoked chariot of these people, has been recognized by Mr. 

 Layard as represented at Khorsahad, as among the spoil of a conquered city. 

 (Nineveh. Part II. c. VI.) I have in this present notice purposely suppressed 

 minor points of identification. — H. T. 



X I use this term as equivalent to ' civilisation fixe' which Salverte at the com. 

 mencement of his great work (Des Sciences Occultes) distinguishes from ' civilisa- 

 tion perfectible,' as respects the practical application of things known. — H. T. 



