XI. comparative purity even of that of Mahomet, when CHAP. the latter was professed by the government. Despotism would doubtless contribute its share to check the progress of society; but it was less oppressive and degrading than in most Asiatic countries. The minute subdivisions of inheritances is not peculiar to the Hindús; and yet it is that which most strikes an inquirer into the causes of the abject condition of the greater part of them. By it the descendants of the greatest landed proprietor. must, in time, be broken down to something between a farmer and a labourer, but less independent than either; and without a chance of accumulation to enable them to recover their position. Bankers and merchants may get rich enough to leave all their sons with fortunes; but, as each possessor knows that he can neither found a family nor dispose of his property by will, he endeavours to gain what pleasure and honour he can from his life-rent, by ostentation in feasts and ceremonies; and by commencing temples, tanks, and groves, which his successors are too poor to complete or to repair.* The effect of equal division on men's minds is as great as on their fortunes. It was resorted to by some ancient republics to prevent the growth of luxury and the disposition to innovation. In India it effectually answers those ends, and stifles all the restless feelings to which men might be led by the Hence the common opinion among Europeans, that it is thought unlucky for a son to go on with his father's work. BOOK ambition of permanently improving their condition. A man who has amassed a fortune by his own labours is not likely to have a turn for literature or the fine arts; and if he had, his collections would be dispersed at his death, and his sons would have to begin their toils anew, without time for acquiring that refinement in taste or elevation of sentiment which is brought about by the improved education of successive generations. Hence, although rapid rise and sudden fortunes are more common in India than in Europe, they produce no permanent change in the society; all remains on the same dead level, with no conspicuous objects to guide the course of the community, and no barriers to oppose to the arbitrary will of the ruler.* Under such discouragements we cannot be surprised at the stagnation and decline of Hindú civilisation. The wonder is, how it could ever struggle against them, and how it attained to such a pitch as exists even at this moment. At what time it had reached its highest point it is not easy to say. Perhaps in institutions and moral * The great military chiefs may be said to be exceptions to this rule, for they not unfrequently transmit their lands to their children but they are, for purposes of improvement, the worst people into whose hands property could fall. As their power rests on mercenary soldiers, they have no need to call in the aid of the people, like our barons; and as each lives on his own lands at a distance from his equals, they neither refine each other by their intercourse, nor those below them by the example of their social habits. XI. character it was at its best just before Alexander; CHAP. but learning was much longer in reaching its acme. The most flourishing period for literature is represented by Hindú tradition to be that of Vicrama Ditya, a little before the beginning of our æra; but some of the authors who are mentioned as the ornaments of that prince's court appear to belong to later times; and the good writers, whose works are extant, extend over a long space of time, from the second century before Christ to the eighth of the Christian æra. Mathematical science was in most perfection in the fifth century after Christ; but works of merit, both in literature and science, continued to be composed for some time after the Mahometan invasion. BOOK IV. HISTORY OF THE HINDÚS UP TO THE MAHOMETAN BOOK THE first information we receive on Hindú history is from a passage in Menu, which gives us to infer that their residence was at one time between the rivers Seraswati (Sersooty) and Drishadwati (Caggar), a tract about 100 miles to the north-west of Delhi, and in extent about sixty-five miles long, and from twenty to forty broad. That land, Menu says, was called Bramháverta, because it was frequented by gods; and the custom preserved by immemorial tradition in that country is pointed out as a model to the pious. The country between that tract and the Jamna, and all to the north of the Jamna and Ganges, including North Behár, is mentioned, in the second place, under the name of Bramarshi; and Bramins born within that tract * Menu, Book II. v. 17, 18. This tract is also the scene of the adventures of the first princes, and the residence of the most famous sages. WILSON, Preface to Vishnu Purána, p. lxvii. are pronounced to be suitable teachers of the CHAP. several usages of men.* This, therefore, may be set down as the first country acquired after that on the Seraswati. The Puránas pass over these early stages unnoticed, and commence with Ayodha (Oud), about the centre of the last mentioned tract. It is there that the solar and lunar races have their origin; and from thence the princes of all other countries are sprung. From fifty to seventy generations of the solar race are only distinguished from each other by purely mythological legends. After these comes Ráma, who seems entitled to take his place in real history. I. of Ráma. His story, when stripped of its fabulous and ro- Expedition mantic decorations, merely relates that Ráma possessed a powerful kingdom in Hindostan; and that he invaded the Deckan and penetrated to the island of Ceylon, which he conquered. The first of these facts there is no reason to question; and we may readily believe that Ráma led an expedition into the Deckan; but it is highly improbable that, if he was the first, or even among the first invaders, he should have conquered Ceylon. If he did so, he could not have lived, as is generally supposed, before the compilation of the Vedas; for, even in the time of Menu's Institutes, there were no settlements of Hindú conquerors in † See p. 173. * Menu, Book II. v. 19, 20. |