A.NCIENT INDIA.. 



7 



ancient city Ayodhya represented by the modern Fyzabad, 

 and it was but an example of many as they then existed 

 throughout India. The houses are there described as large 

 and beautifully arranged ; the streets always watered ; the 

 gardens pleasant, full of birds and flowers, and with many 

 groves of fruit trees ; the tanks of the city magnificent beyond 

 all description and covered with white lotus (Nymphea lotus 

 alb.) ; birds swam upon the surface, and a border of plantain 

 trees surrounded each tank. Around the city were lofty 

 walls, and outside them a moat filled with water, deep and 

 impassable like that of Palibothra, no doubt a receptacle for 

 the city sewage. Ayodhya was full of people ; every one 

 was healthy and happy ; everybody was fed on rice, and, as 

 recorded, well-fed ; children were numerous, and " no man 

 lived less than a thousand years," that is, no doubt, many 

 attained a ripe old age. Men fixed their affection "upon 

 their wives only," — a very proper state of society indeed ; 

 women were chaste ; no one was poor or fed on unclean 

 things; in all Ayodhya there was not a man or woman 

 who was unfortunate, or foolish, or wretched, or diseased. 

 Those were surely the " good old times " of India, the 

 " golden age " of society and of propriety. During the Vedic 

 period regular roads did not exist ; hence, on the occasion of 

 the advance of an army or of a chief, communications of 

 this kind had to be opened up for their passage. Even before 

 the date of the Ramayana, however, large tracts of the country 

 had been intersected by roads, along which pillars or mile- 

 stones were erected to mark distances ; inns for travellers had 

 also been erected. A regular system of village communities 

 existed, — their rights and privileges well defined, the affairs 

 of each village conducted by officials appointed for the 

 purpose. Among the works connected with each village, trees 

 with creepers, chiefly convolvuli, were planted ; lakes, wells, 

 and streams were formed, partly for use by the people, partly 



