COMMERCE OF INDIA. 



229 



Cushite and Semitic empires had already a long history behind 

 them. 



To Egypt and to Babylonia the Aryan Hindus owe a great 

 debt of gratitude. How far they were influenced by the 

 Cushites and Dravidians of India it will be difficult to 

 determine. To the former they owe directly or indirectly 

 their astronomical or rather astrological science, the philoso- 

 phical systems on cosmogeny and atomism, the art of writing, 

 at first so detested by the Brahmans, who feared to lose 

 their ascendancy, if the knowledge of writing became general; 

 as in after years the invention of printing was opposed 

 by the Obscurantes in Europe. 



To the intercourse with the Greeks they are indebted among 

 other things most probably to the drama, to the art of minting 

 coins, and to an increased knowledge of astronomy. The 

 Hindus had a high appreciation of Grecian science in 

 general, and they acknowledge specially the Yavanas as their 

 masters in astronomy. Many astronomical terms in Sanskrit 

 are derived from the Greek. We observed before, that the 

 Greeks were favourable to Buddhism, which owed its success 

 in India most likely to the support of the non- Aryan popu- 

 lation. To what an extent at a later period the cultus of 

 Krishna was modified by Christain legends, which found 

 their way to India, is beyond our power to say. 



On the other hand, the Hindus contributed, when their 

 turn came, much to the advancement of science, whose 

 depositors they had become. Whether it is owing to the 

 enervating heat or to some other climatic reason, the Hindu 

 though gifted with a sharp, discerning intellect, is on the 

 whole not gifted with the genius of originality. Very 

 few inventions or discoveries have been made by Hindus, 

 The study of astronomical and mathematical science was 

 prosecuted with great zeal and success in India, but the first 

 influence of the Hindus on the west was through the medium 



