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The Historians' History of the World 02 [Israel, India, Persia, Phoenicia, Minor Nations of Western Asia]
- Автор: Gutenberg
- Год: 1905
- Язык: английский
- Жанр: История
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Seleucus, a general of Alexander’s and the inheritor of the chief part of his Asiatic territories, entered into diplomatic relations with an Indian Raja, Chandragupta by name, who had driven the Macedonian garrisons from the Punjab and proved himself too formidable to be conquered. The ambassador sent by Seleucus to the court of the Raja was named Megasthenes. The Greek appears to have been greatly impressed with what he saw of Indian life, for he wrote an enthusiastic description of the manners and customs of the Indian people. This account would appear to have circulated widely in the Grecian world, and to have afforded one of the sources for the accounts of India given at a later day by Diodorus and Arrian; but, unfortunately, the original has not come down to us. Its loss was probably due, in part, at any rate, to the excellence of Arrian’s work. Arrian drew also upon the account of India written by Nearchus, the general who commanded Alexander’s fleet.
No doubt there were other writers of the time of Alexander and the immediately succeeding period who wrote on India, but if so, their works, like those of Megasthenes and Nearchus, were superseded by the famous work of Arrian, which, as has been pointed out by Professor Lefmann, was for many centuries regarded as the most authoritative book on the subject. Arrian, it will be recalled, was also the author of the most authoritative life of Alexander the Great. It is not quite clear that his Indica was originally intended as a separate production; in any event, it naturally grew out of the history of Alexander. There is no reason to suppose that Arrian had visited India, but his recognised merits as a careful historian give a high degree of reliability to his work as evidencing the best knowledge of his time. It must be understood, however, that this knowledge had referred almost exclusively to the manners and customs of India, throwing almost no light whatever on the sweep of historical events.
Turning to India itself, we find that almost no historical documents except the religious books have come down from antiquity. The one bright spot in Indian history of a relatively early period is furnished by the reign of King Asoka.[16] Asoka lived about the middle of the third century B.C. He was a great conqueror, and appears to have brought a large part of India under his sway. His famous edict was engraved on rocks and pillars throughout his domain. These edicts are chiefly concerned with the practical enforcement of the duties enjoined by the Buddhist faith.
A Specimen of an Asoka Inscription: Mathia Pillar
“Seventeen versions of the edicts of Asoka have been discovered,” says Taylor. “They are engraved on rocks and pillars in all parts of India, and there are several inscriptions of dedication on caves or rock-cut temples which were constructed by him. There are also six pillar inscriptions, of which the best known are those at Delhi and Allahabad. On five of the pillars are inscribed the six edicts promulgated in the year 236 B.C., while the rock inscriptions contain copies, more or less complete, of the fourteen earlier edicts which date from 251 B.C. One of the most perfect covers the face of a huge granite boulder, seventy-five feet in length and twelve in height, at Girnar, near Junagarh, in Gujarat. There is another copy at Dhauli; a fourth, in a different alphabet, at Kapur-di-giri, on the frontiers of Afghanistan; and a fifth, four hundred miles to the southeast, at Khalsi. There are also six rock inscriptions, containing single edicts. An imperfect fragment, on which the well-known title of Asoka can however be read, has been brought from Ceylon.
“The wide range of these inscriptions shows the extent of the dominion or supremacy of Asoka. They are found from Gujarat on the western coast to Orissa on the east; as far north as Peshawar, as far south as the boundary of the Madras Presidency, if not even in Ceylon. They range over fifteen degrees of longitude, and twenty-seven of latitude.”[17]
Aside from their interest as historical documents, these inscriptions of Asoka had the greatest importance in giving an insight into the literature of India; for it was through them that the Indian alphabet was interpreted by Princeps. “The Delhi pillar and the granite boulder at Girnar,” says Taylor, “may fairly take their place in the history of epigraphy beside the bilingual inscription of Malta, the Rosetta Stone, and the rock of Behistun.” Unfortunately, the later rulers of India did not follow the example of Asoka, and his inscriptions are almost unique among the epigraphic remains of India.
It will be evident then, that classical literature and monumental remains give but brief glimpses of the actual history of early India. It follows that no full knowledge of this subject is, or perhaps ever can be, available.
2000 B.C. The Indians are that branch of the Indo-European family which moved from the west into the tableland of Iran, the valley of the Indus, and the Punjab. Here they were the first of their family to attain to a higher civilisation than their brothers. The members of this branch called themselves Aryans, “the noble” or “the ruling.” In their new home they found a race of black people, which was enslaved or expelled.
The sole evidence of their early life is the Rig-Veda, from which it appears that the knowledge of effectual invocations and sacrifices to the gods was in possession of certain families.
1500 They slowly push their way along the spurs of the Himalayas into the valley of the Ganges, whose aborigines were enslaved or driven into the Himalayas on the north and the Deccan on the south.
In the struggle with the natives the separate tribes are amalgamated into larger communities; the small unions of tribes become nations, which divide the land of the Ganges among themselves; the tribal chiefs are changed into military leaders, and the successful leaders become the heads of important states. This took a considerable amount of time. There were the Matsyas on the west bank of the Jumna; the Surasenas, who lived in the cities of Mathura and Krishnapura, and the afterwards united kingdoms of the Bharatas and Panchalas on the Jumna and Ganges. These were governed at Hastinapura. Farther to the east and north were the Kosalas whose capital was Ajodhya; the Videhas of Mithila. On the Ganges were the Kasis, capital Varanasi (Benares), the Angas at Champa (Bhagalpur), and south of the river was the kingdom of the Magadhas, the most important on the Ganges, with the capital at Rajagriha.
1400 This is the approximate beginning of the dynastic periods for most of the kingdoms on the Ganges. Of the kingdom of Magadha:
Brihadratha reported to be the first king.
His third successor was Somapi, the first of the Barhadrathas.
1300 Somapi, the first of the Barhadratha dynasty.
There are about thirty kings of this dynasty. The last one, Ripunjaya, dies about 800 B.C. They rule at Rajagriha.
1400 Kuru, evidently the first dynastic king of the Bharatas.
The name of the royal family passes over to the people, and they are henceforth known as the Kurus.
The Kurus are the first to establish extensive dominion over the tribes of the Upper Ganges, and they drive eastward the tribes which were once united to them and had followed them into the Jumna valley,—the Kosalas, Angas, Videhas, and Magadhas.