NO. 42. — 1891.] ANCIENT INDUSTRIES. 



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nevertheless of primary importance to our purpose, inasmuch 

 as it enables the reader to perceive how the wealth of the 

 country had been created, and to account for its rapid growth 

 and development under the new conditons specified. 



The introduction of the new religion, with its captivating 

 ceremonial observances and festivities, and the progress it 

 made, not only without opposition, but apparently also with 

 even more than the characteristic acquiescence the people 

 had shown in the new political order, afford conclusive proof 

 of the settled nature and successful pursuit of the national 

 industry. For it cannot be denied that the whole fabric,, 

 both religious and political, depended for its existence upon 

 the success of the national enterprise that furnished the- 

 crowd of willing worshippers, the host of priests and monks, 

 and the regal state that gave eclat to the new order. 



Hence the encouragement of agriculture naturally became 

 a primary object of the attention of the early monarchs 

 of the new dynasty. Accordingly the priestly narrative 

 mentions the construction of several tanks amongst the 

 achievements of their heroes. These works were evidently 

 made by the resources of the State, in token of the sympathy 

 of the new rulers with the pursuits of the people, in which 

 they naturally perceived lay the sources of their revenue 

 and the interest of the country. They thus consolidated 

 their power and enlarged their influence over the people by 

 the encouragement of the national industry. 



It may here be mentioned, that the manner in which the 

 historians record these works plainly indicates that they 

 were not new in character, not imported from abroad, but of 

 a nature similar to those the people had constructed for 

 themselves, and which were in universal use. It has already 

 been shown that the nature of the national irrigation works 

 must originally have been of the simplest character and 

 construction, and that, at the period under review, they 

 could not have been developed beyond the stage at which 

 they were compassable by the efforts of the villagers indi- 

 vidually, or by small combinations, seeing that as yet the 



