28 Remarks on the Sequel to the [Jan. 



east and the west. It is probable, he further states, that this nation 

 was descended from the Chinas of Menu — one of the ten tribes who were 

 expelled from the caste of Kshatriyas, " for having abandoned the or- 

 dinances of the Vedas and the company of the Brahmins." The country 

 however, in which the Chinas of Menu originally settled, was apparent- 

 ly not so far distant as Shensi : for according to the same distinguished 

 author, it is designated by the learned Hindoos, " a country to the north- 

 east of Gour and to the east of Kamroop and Nepal" — a description 

 which seems to imply that it is the Chin mentioned by Dr. Buchanan, 

 and not the remote region of Maha Chin, Shensi, or China. The ac- 

 count given by Menu of outcast and exiled Kshatriyas, called Chinas, 

 having emigrated to a country to the east of Bengal, is supported by a 

 tradition current among the Koch, and I believe, also among the Mech 

 and Hajong tribes of Rungpore and Assam, viz., that their chiefs are 

 descended from Kshatriyas " who had fled into Kamroop and the ad- 

 jacent country of Chin."* Both accounts are considered fabulous, but 

 it seems not improbable that they are founded on truth, and had their 

 origin in an incursion of military adventurers, who, on being expelled 

 from caste, turned their arms against the barbarous tribes above men- 

 tioned. Accordingly, the Chinas and Kiratas mentioned by Menu as 

 degraded Kshatriyas should be regarded, not as the ancestors of the 

 aboriginal tribes of Chinas and Kiratas, as some have erroneously infer- 

 red, but as foreigners of Hindoo descent to whom the names of the tribes 

 they conquered were given by the nation from whose society they had 

 been exiled. Of the skill in arms of the early Brahminical conquerors 

 of India, a highly interesting account is given in the appendix to Mr. 

 Torrens's work entitled " Remarks on the scope and uses of Military 

 Literature and History." They appear from the ancient authorities 

 there adduced to have acquired at a very early period high military dis- 

 cipline and superior tactical knowledge. This military science, therefore, 

 coupled with the physical strength which, doubtless, these warriors pos- 

 sessed (proceeding, as there is reason to believe they did, " from the great 

 plateau of Central Asia") must have rendered them formidable enemies 

 to the comparatively weak and uncivilized aboriginal inhabitants of India. 

 Their conquests, it may reasonably be inferred, soon extended to the 

 fertile countries east of the Ganges ; and it was, we may suppose, at no 

 * Buchanan's Topography of Rungpore. See Martin's Eastern India, p. 415. 



