Banerjee [1921] India, As Known to the Ancient World

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-- INDIA --AS KNOWN TO THEANCIENT WORLD

BYGAURANGANATH BANERJEE

HUMPHREY MILFORDOXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESSLONDON BOMBAY MADRAS CALCUTTA

1921


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INDIA AS KNOWNTO THE ANCIENT WORLDOR

INDIA'S INTERCOURSE IN ANCIENT TIMES WITHHER NEIGHBOURS, EGYPT, WESTERN ASIA,GREECE, ROME, CENTRAL ASIA, CHINA,FURTHER INDIA AND INDONESIA

BYDR. GAURANGANATH BANERJEE

M.A., B.L., PH.D., F.B.S.A.LECTURER IN ANCJENT HISTORY AND SECRETARY TO THE

SOST-GRADUATE TEACHING IN ARTS UNIVERSITY OF CALCUTTA

HUMPHREY MILFORDOXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESSLONDON BOMBAY MADRAS CALCUTTA

1921


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CALCUTTAPrinted by D. N. Bancrjee, Bancrjce Press-

2, Maharaiii .^amanioye Road


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THESE PAGESARE DEDICATED TOMY MOTHER


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CONTENTSPAGE

PREFACEWESTERN ASIA . . . . . . 1EGYPT . . . . . . . . 10GEEECE AND ROME . . . . . . 15CENTRAL ASIA . . . . . . . . 29CHINA . . . . . - . 39FURTHER INDIA . . . . . . . * 48INDONESIA . . . . . . , * 54JAVA .. .. .. .. .,64SUMATRA . . . . . . * . 62BALI .. .. .. ..70BORNEO . . . . . . . , 71CONCLUSION . . . . . . . 72


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PREFACEThe object of this little book is to offer a survey of the

remarkable civilisation which arose in ancient Indiathousands of years ago and which influenced not onlythe manners, religion and customs of the people of theMalaya Archipelago and Indo-China, but gave also athin veneer of culture to the nomads of Central Asiaticsteppes, through her commercial enterprise and religiouspropaganda.

Now, civilisation is the outcome of reciprocal action andreaction : nations both giving and taking. Such a resultis but to be expected when States come into contact withone another, when they acquire knowledge and intimacyof one another's institutions and are thus able to recognise

ERRATAInsert at the foot of pp. 2 and 3, Robertson-'

Disquisition.Page 1 1. 11 for Gen. XXXVIII read Gen. XXXVIIPace 2 1. 9 far Seignobos read Robertson.Page 13 (foot-note) /or Mangalore read Cranganore.

** ,v ^XI^JL Maun, iiictv acquire eumire irom tne van-quished ; or, without the subjection of a people, assimil-ation of culture may come about through the unconsciousadoption of customs and modes of thought.

Throughout the earliest career of man in Central andSouthern Asia, it is to India that we must turn as thedominant power by the sheer weight of its superiorcivilisation. To us, therefore who are the children ofancient India, it is of vital interest to lift the curtain and


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CONTENTSPREFACEWESTERN ASIA . .EGYPTGEEECE AND ROMECENTRAL ASIACHINAFURTHER INDIA . .INDONESIAJAVA

PAGE

1. 10. 15. 29. 39

48. 54. 64

62


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PREFACEThe object of this little book is to offer a survey of the

remarkable civilisation which arose in ancient Indiathousands of years ago and which influenced not onlythe manners, religion and customs of the people of theMalaya Archipelago and Indo-China, but gave also athin veneer of culture to the nomads of Central Asiaticsteppes, through her commercial enterprise and religiouspropaganda.

Now, civilisation is the outcome of reciprocal action andreaction : nations both giving and taking. Such a resultis but to be expected when States come into contact withone another, when they acquire knowledge and intimacyof one another's institutions and are thus able to recogniseand appreciate the merits of foreign organisations andperceive the defects of their own. In India, such recip-rocal action and reaction we notice from the earliesttimes.

True it is that India has been periodically overrun byinvaders both European and Asiatic ; nevertheless thetransmission and assimilation of culture continues withouta break. A conquering nation may carry its own civiliza-tion with it to the conquered. Culture is often forcedupon the latter by measures coercive. The conquerors,on the other hand, may acquire culture from the van-quished ; or, without the subjection of a people, assimil-ation of culture may come about through the unconsciousadoption of customs and modes of thought.

Throughout the earliest career of man in Central andSouthern Asia, it is to India that we must turn as thedominant power by the sheer weight of its superiorcivilisation. To us, therefore who are the children ofancient India, it is of vital interest to lift the curtain and


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peer into the ages which bequeathed so precious a legacyto our forefathers. The moment seems opportune forgrouping together the comparatively small amount ofmaterial at our disposal, with a view to presenting ageneral picture of India's intercourse with her neighboursat the dawn of history.

In this endeavour I have utilised the results of theresearches of many savants and have added to them thoseof my own ; for the field of investigation is too large to becultivated in its entirety by any single investigator.It has been my aim throughout to present only suchresults as may safely be regarded as certain and definite,and to abstain from those views which are fanciful orconjectural. I have moreover tried to tell the storywithout worrying the general reader with too many details.

To Dr. H. F. Helmolt's monumental work, the "Weltge-schichte" (published in English by Wm. Heinemann inLondon under the title "The World's History"), I amindebted, especially for India's relations with Indo-Chinaand Malaya Peninsula. I also gratefully acknowledgemy obligation to Dr. G. Hirth's invaluable book TheAncient History of China and to Sir S. Raffles' History ofJava. To the colossal labours of Sir Gaston Maspero andDr. Rappaport I have been indebted especially as regardsAncient Egyptian trade with India. I also owe a debt toMr. H. G. Rawlinson and Dr. Radha Kumud Mukherjee,forerunners in this particular branch of Indology.

Finally, I may say with Nicolaus Copernicus that"when I acknowledge that I shall treat of things in a verydifferent manner from that adopted by my predecessors,I do so thanking them, for it is they who have opened upthe roads which lead to the investigation of facts."

The University of Calcutta, GAURANGAXATH BANERJEEFebruary, 1921


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" The history of trade is the history of the internationalcommerce and of geography, and both combined form thehistory of the civilisation of our race".

O. Peschel.

WESTERN ASIAThe original home allotted to man by his Creatorwas in the mild and fertile regions of the East.

There the human race began its career of improve-ment ; and from the remains of Sciences which wereanciently cultivated, as well as of Arts which wereanciently exercised in India, we may conclude it to beone of the first countries in which men made anyconsiderable progress in their early career. Thewisdom of the "East" was celebrated in I. Kings andits productions were in request among the distantnations of antiquity (Gen. XXXVIII, 25). Theintercourse between different countries was carriedon at first entirely by land. Trade was carried onby means of caravans, particularly by nations whoinhabited in the coast of the Arabian Sea, from theearliest period to which historical information reachesus. But notwithstanding every improvement thatcould be made in this manner of conveying the produc-tions of the country to another by land, the incon-veniences which attended it were obvious and un-avoidable. Dark and serrated ^mountain ranges,glowing with heat and devoid of life, " alternate withstretches of burning sand ; sunken reefs and coralrocks near the shore ; marauding bands of Bedouinsinfesting the caravan-routes ; trade-jealousy and*'preferential tariffs" of the myrmidons of custom-


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2 WESTERN ASIAhouses prevented or at least threw obstacles in theway of this mode of conducting commerce. So amethod of communication more easy and expedi-tious was sought and the ingenuity of man graduallydiscovered that the rivers, the arms of the sea, andeven the ocean itself were destined to open andfacilitate intercourse with the various regions of thethen known world. "Navigation and shipbuilding,'/observes Prof. Seignobos, "are arts so nice and com-plicated that they require the talents as well as theexperience of many successive ages to bring themto any degree of perfection." From the raft orcanoe, which first served to carry a savage over therivulets which obstructed him in the chase, to the cons-truction of a vessel capable of conveying a numerouscrew or a considerable cargo of goods to a distantcoast, is an immense stride. Many efforts would bemade, many experiments would be tried and muchlabour as well as ingenuity would be employed beforethis arduous and important undertaking could beaccomplished.

Even after some improvement was made in theart of shipbuilding, the intercourse of the nationswith each other by sea was far from being extensive.From the accounts of the earliest historiographers,we learn that the navigation made its first efforts onthe Mediterranean Sea and on the Persian Gulf. Froman attentive inspection of the position of these twogreat inland seas, these accounts appear to be highlyprobable. These seas lay open the continents ofEurope, Asia and Africa, and washing the shoresof the most fertile and the most early civilisedcountries seemed to have been destined by Nature


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WESTERN ASIA 3to facilitate their communication with one another.We find accordingly, that the first voyages of theEgyptians and the Phoenicians, the most ancientnavigators mentioned in history, were made inthe Mediterranean and the Red Sea. Their tradewas not however long confined to the countriesbordering upon these ; by acquiring early possessionof the ports on the Arabian Sea, they extendedthe sphere of their commerce and are repre-sented to have opened a communication by seawith India. Dr. Day asserts in his "History ofCommerce," that "the beginnings of these sea-voyages are lost in the obscurity of the past. Weknow that they were highly developed by 1500 B. C..when Sidon was the leading city and that they didnot cease to extend when the primacy of the Phoeni-cian cities passed to Tyre. The Phoenicians taughtthe art of navigation to the ancient world ; theirships were long the accepted models of constructionand the Greeks learned from them to direct theircourse at night by the North or, as the Greeks calledit, the Phoenician Star."

But the question of the navigation on the PersianGulf is still entirely shrouded in mist, as well as thatof the Alpha and Omega of all early communicationsbetween the two countries India and the land ofSumer and Akkad. It is inconceivable that theearliest civilisation of Chaldaea had not engaged innavigation on the "Sea of the East." At the period,when our knowledge begins however, we see thiscivilisation already withdrawing more northward,into the interior of the country. The most ancientinscriptions do not mention anything of such matters ;


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4 WESTERN ASIAand thus we must probably for a long time be contentto leave the question unsolved. But incidentally wemay notice that the great prosperity of the statecalled Elam and its obstinate and sturdy resistancefirst to Chaldsea, and then to the mighty AssyrianEmpire may be partly explained by the wealthshe acquired in trade with the countries on itseastern forntier ; for we know that Elam had a fleetmanned with Phoenician crews in the great bay atthe embouchure of the two streams, Tigris andEuphrates. Thus it is sufficient to make us recognisethat Elam, in consequence of its position and civili-sation, really was the connecting link between thecivilised countries of Nearer and Farther Asia and thepredecessor of the eastern half of the later PersianEmpire. So if the trade with India and WesternAsia is one of the most important factors in thehistory of the world, Elam must also in the daysof its splendour have interfered, if unable toassist, in these trade-relations and always havehad an important word in the matter. And if in thePersian time, under the full light of history, theAramaic script wandered to India and farther east-ward, such an event may equally well have happenedin the earlier millennia. This fact is expressed lessclearly, but still distinctly enough, in the recurrenceof the Babylonian legend of the Flood among theIndians, to which many other points in common willsome day be added (vide Ragozin, Vedic India).

Now, the principal sources of our knowledge,such as it is, of early Indian trade, are derived fromscattered hints in the ancient authors of India, begin-ning with the Indian Scriptures and from several


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WESTERN ASIA 5passages in the Mahabharata, notably the enumera--tion of gifts that were brought by the various nations-to the great Rajasuya of Yudhistira.* As regards-navigation in Vedic India, it was diligently pursued rwhich could not but be expected in a district so>intersected by streams as that of the Indus ; evenvoyages on the open sea are hinted at and merchantsare mentioned, though seldom. Prof. Dr. Kaegi in hisIntroduction to the "Rig Veda" says that there wasnavigation in the streams of the Punjab and on theOcean (cf. the Voyage of Prince Bhujya) and tradeonly existed in barter. And it is narrated there,that the two Aswins (who represent morning andevening twilight) brought back Prince Bhujya, whosailed in a hundred-oared ship ('Sataritram nawam 5 )and went to sea and was nearly drowned, "in vesselsof their own along the bed of the Ocean." Thus

"Safe comes the ship to haven,Through billows and through gales ;If once the great Twin brethernSit shining on the sails. "

But the first trade between the West and Indiaof which we have any definite knowledge was thatcarried on by the Phoenician and Hebrew marinersfrom Ezion-Geber on the Red Sea ; and an accountwe have of this trade implies, on the part of the Phoeni-cians, a previous acquaintance with the route. ThePhoenicians first made their appearance on the Ery-thraean or the Red Sea, by which we must understandthe whole Indian Ocean between Africa and the MalayaPeninsula ; and curiously the Puranas thus represent

For internal evidence, vide my article on " Peregrinations of theAjicient Hindus " in " Hindustan Review" May, 1918.


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6 WESTERN ASIAit, when they describe the waters of the Arunodadhi,as reddened by the reflection of the solar rays fromthe southern side of the Mount Sumeru, which aboundswith red rubies. Of the fact that a trade existedbetween Western Asia and Babylonia on the one handand Hindusthan on the other, there cannot be anydoubt. M. D'Anville suggests three routes for thisintercourse with the Western World. The firstclimbs up the precipitous and zigzag passes of theZagros Range, which the Greeks called the "Ladders",into the treeless regions of Persia. This route wasbarred for centuries by the inveterate hostility of themountaineers and did not become practicable until"the Great King Darius" reduced the Kurdish high-landers to a condition of vassalage. The second tra-verses the mountains of Armenia to the Caspian Seaand Oxus and descends into India by the passes ofthe Hindukush. Articles of commerce doubtlesspassed along this way from very early times ; but thetrade was of little importance, fitful, intermittent andpassed through many intermediate hands, until theParthian domination obliged more merchants to takethis route.

Lastly, there is the Sea ; and this alone affordsa direct and constant intercourse.Now the question of main importance is at whatperiod did regular maritime intercourse first arisebetween India and Western Asia ? From the historyof the Chinese coinage, it is quite certain that anactive sea-borne commerce sprang about 700 B. C.between Babylon and Farther East and that Indiahad an active share in it. From the time of DariusHystaspes (c. 500 B.C.) the Babylonians lost their


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WESTERN ASIA 7monopoly in it and it passed largely into the hands ofthe Arabs, whom the Greeks found in possession.Ample evidence is forthcoming that maritime inter-course existed between India and Babylon in theseventh century B. C.

Firstly: Shalmaneser IV of Assyria (727-722 B. C.)received presents from Bactria and India, speciallyBactrian camels and Indian elephants. (Dr. Winckler)

Secondly : Mr. H. Rassam found a beam of Indiancedar in the palace of Nebuchadrezzar III of theNee-Babylonian Empire (c. 580 B. C.) at Birs Nimrud,part of which is now exhibited in the British Museum.

Thirdly : The Baveru Jataka relates the adven-tures of certain Indian merchants, who took the firstpeacock by sea to Babylon. The Jataka itself maygo back to 400 B. C., but the folk-tales on which it isfounded must be much older. Prof. Minayeff sawin the Baveru Jataka the oldest trace in India ofPhcenicio-Babylonian intercourse.

Fourthly : Certain Indian commodities were im-ported into Babylon even in the days of Solomonc. 900 B. C. and they were known to the Greeks andothers under their Indian names. Rice, for instance,had always been a principal article of export fromIndia (vide the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea) and itwas a common article of food in the time of Sophocles(Gk. Oryza is identical wTith the Tamil, arisi or rice).Again Aristophanes repeatedly mentions peacock andassumes that it was well-known to his audience as thecommon-fowl with which he contrasts it. Peacocks,rice and Indian sandal-woods were known in Palestineunder their Tamil names in the days of Hebrewchroniclers of Kings and Genesis.


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8 WESTERN ASIAFifthly : Baudhayana's condemnation of the

Northern Aryans who took part in the sea-trade,proves that they were not the chief agents, thoughthey had a considerable share in it.*

These evidences then warrant us in the belief thatmaritime commerce between India and Babylon flour-ished at least in the seventh and sixth centuries B. C.It was chiefly in the hands of the Dravidians, althoughthe Aryans also had a share in it ; and as Indiantraders settled afterwards in Arabia (vide LassenrInd. Alter, ii, p. 580) and on the east coast of Africa,and as we find them settling at this very time on thecoast of China, we cannot doubt that they had theirsettlements inBabylon also. "Crowds of strangers livedin Babylon," says Berossus (c. 350 B. C.). But the 7thand the 6th centuries are the culminating period ofBabylonian greatness. Babylon which had been des-troyed by Sennacherib, and rebuilt by Esarhaddonand later on beautified by Nebuchadrezzar III Baby-lon, which owed her importance and her fame to thesanctity of her temples now appears before us all of asudden, as the greatest commercial entrepot of theworld. There was no limit to her resources and to herpower. She arose and utterly overthrew her ancientrival and oppressor Nineveh. With Nebuchadrezzarshe became the wonder of the world. No other citycould rival her magnificence. Splendid in her battle-ments and streets, her temples and palaces and gardens,she glowed with resplendent colour under the azuresky, the acknowledged mistress of the nations, regallyenthroned among the palm-groves on either bank ofthe broad swift-flowing flood of the Euphrates. The

* See Mr. J. Kennedy's learned article in J. R. A. S., 1898.


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WESTERN ASIA 9merchants of all countries made her their resort ;the camels of Yemen and the mules of Media jostledeach other in her streets. The secret of her greatnesslay in her monopoly of the treasures of the East, inthe shouting of the Chaldaeans in their ships and inthe swarthy Orientals who frequented her bazaars.A commerce, frequent and direct, between theSemites of Mesopotamia and the Indians couldbe carried on only by the way of the sea. Theoverland routes were not impracticable, in fact thedesert steppes of Asia formed the mercantile oceanof the ancients the companies of camels, their fleets.The physical obstacles could be overcome, and prac-tically the earliest trade between India and Meso-potamia crossed the lofty passes of the Hindukushand wound its perilous way along the banks of theOxus. But the commerce was from hand to hand,and from tribe to tribe, fitful, rare and uncertain andnever possessed any importance. Similarly, thenormal trade-route from the Persian Gulf to Indiacould never have been along the inhospitable desertsof Gedrosia. Doubtless then, more than one adven-turous vessel reached India by hugging the shoreprior to the seventh century B.C., although the recordsare lost and commercial results therefrom were negli-gible. But the exploring expeditions dispatched byDarius in 512 B. C. from the mouth of the Indusunder Skylax of Karyanda and two centuries laterby Alexander the Great, under Nearchos, the Admiralof the Macedonian Fleet, show the difficulties anddangers of this route, the time it occupied and theignorance of the pilots. The clear-headed authorof the Periplus, it is true, says that small ships made


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10 EGYPTformerly voyages to India, coasting along the shoreuntil Hippalus first ventured to cross the ocean byobserving the monsoon. The monsoon was knownhowever from the earliest times to all who sailedalong the Arabian and African coast. Down to thevery end of the Middle Ages, the voyage from Ormuzdto India was rarely attempted except at the com-mencement of the middle of the monsoon.

EGYPTThe trade of the ancient Egyptians had giventhem very little knowledge of geography. Indeed

the whole trade of the Egyptians was carried onby buying goods from their nearest neighbourson one side and selling them to those on theother side of them. Long voyages were unknown ;and though the trading-wealth of Egypt had mainlyarisen from carrying the merchandise of India andArabia Felix from the ports on the Red Sea to theports on the Mediterranean, the Egyptians seem tohave gained no knowledge of the countries fromwhich these goods came. They bought them of theArab traders who came to Cosseir and the TroglodyticBerenice from the opposite coast ; the Arabs hadprobably bought them from the caravans thathad carried them across the desert from thePersian Gulf; because these land journeys acrossthe desert were for the Arabs both easier andcheaper than a coasting voyage. On the contrary,India seems to have been known to the Greeksprior to Alexander, as a country which by sea wasto be reached by way of the Euphrates and the


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EGYPT 11Persian Gulf ; and though Skylax had dropped downthe river Indus, coasted Arabia and then reachedthe Red Sea, this voyage was either forgotten ordisbelieved, and in the time of the Ptolemies it seemsprobable that nobody thought that India could bereached by sea from Egypt. Arrian indeed thoughtthat the difficulty of carrying water in their smallships with large crews of rowers, was alone greatenough to stop a voyage of such a length along a desert-coast which could not supply them with fresh water.

The long voyages of Solomon and Necho hadbeen limited to circumnavigating Africa; the voyage ofAlexander the Great had been from the Indus to thePersian Gulf : hence it was that the court of Euergeteswas startled by the strange news that the Arabianguards on the coast of the Red Sea, had found a manin a boat by himself, who could not speak Koptic,and whom they afterwards discovered to be an Indianwho had sailed straight from India and had lost hisship-mates (c. 200 B.C.). He was willing to show anyone the route by which he had sailed ; and Eudoxus ofCyzicus in Asia Minor came to Alexandria to persuadeEuergetes to give him, the command of a vessel forthis voyage of discovery. A vessel was given him ;and though he was but badly fitted out, he reacheda country, which he called India, by sea and broughtback a cargo of spices and precious stones. He wrotean account of the coasts which he visited and it wasmade use of by Pliny. In the course ofthese attempts atmaritime discovery and searchings for a cheaper meansof obtaining the Indian products, the Greek sailorsof Euergetes made a settlement in the island Dio-scorides (now called Socotra) in the Indian Ocean


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12 EGYPTand there met the trading vessels from India andCeylon. This little island continued a Greek colonyfor upwards of seven centuries and Greek was theonly language spoken there, till it fell under theArabs, in the twilight of history, when all Europeanpossessions in Africa were overthrown. But theart of navigation was so far unknown that littleuse was made of this voyage of Eudoxus ; the goodsof India, which were all costly and of small weight,were, under the Ptolemies, still for the most partcarried across the desert on camels' backs.

The maritime intercourse of Egypt with India inthe epoch which immediately preceded the Romanrule, was not great and was carried on in the mainby the Arabians. It was only through the Romansthat Egypt obtained the great maritime traffic to theEast. "Not 20 Egyptian vessels in the year,"says a contemporary of Augustus, "ventured forthunder the Ptolemies from the Arabian Gulf : now120 merchantmen annually sail to India from theport of Myos Hormos alone." Alexandria, underthe Romans became the great entrepot of the tradingworld, not only having its own great trade in grain,but being the port through which the trade of Indiaand Arabia passed to Europe, and at which theSyrian vessels touched on their way to Italy. Theharbour was crowded with masts and strange prowsand uncouth sails and the quays always were busy withloading and unloading ; while in the streets mightbe seen men of all languages and all dresses, copper-coloured Egyptians, swarthy Jews, lively, bustlingGreeks and haughty Italians, with Asiatics from neigh-bouring coasts of Syria and Cilicia and even dark Ethio-


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14 EGYPTport and a much more convenient one, is that whichlies in the territory of the people called Nelcyndi,Barace by name. Here king Pandion used to reign,dwelling at a considerable distance from the martin the interior, at a city known as Modeira. Travel-lers set sail from India on their return to Egypt, atthe beginning of the Egyptian month Tybus, whichis our December ; if they do this, they can go andreturn in the same year."The places on the Indian coast, which the Egyptianmerchant vessels then reached, are verified fromthe coins found there. A hoard of Roman goldcoins has been dug up quite recently near Calicut,under the roots of a banyan tree. It had been buriedby an Alexandrian merchant on his arrival from avoyage and left safe under the cover of the sacredtree to await his return from a second journey. Buthe died before his return and his secret died withhim. The products of the Indian trade were chieflysilk, diamonds and other precious stones, ginger,spices and ivory.To Pliny's survey we must add the valuablegeographical knowledge given by the author of thePeriplus of the Erythraean Sea, which has comedown to us in an interesting document, wherein hementions the several sea-ports and their distances,with the tribes and cities near the coast. The tradeof Egypt to India and Arabia was then most valuableand carried on with great activity ; but as themerchandise in each case was carried only for shortdistances from city to city, the merchants could gainbut little knowledge of where it came from or ofwhere it was going. Even under Justinian part


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GREECE AND ROME 15of the Egyptian trade to the East was carried onthrough the islands of Ceylon and Socotra ; but itwas chiefly in the hands of the uneducated Arabs,who were little able to communicate to the worldmuch knowledge of the countries from which theybrought their highly-valued goods. At Ceylon theymet with traders from beyond the Ganges and China,from whom they bought the silk which the Europeanshad formerly thought a product of Arabia.

That the Roman legions failed to make theirway to India across the mountainous frontiers ofWestern Iran, following in the footsteps of Alexander,is a fact of vast historical importance. The civili-sation of the Western world, which had once beenborne by Alexander as far as the Indus, was destinedfor more than a thousand years to be cut off fromall contact with the world of the East ; for the smallflame of Greek culture that shed its feeble rays overBactria counted for little and was soon extinguished.It is true that Greek art lived on in India for manyyears longer ; but it finally became absorbed and lostall resemblance to its former self in the hands of theIndians (vide my book "Hellenism in Ancient India").It is also true that the teachings of Indian sages wereechoed in the Western world of esoteric sects andschools of Philosophy, but the mutual labour ofcivilisation was completely broken off for the time.

GREECE AND ROMEAs was to be expected, the earliest voyages and

travels of the ancient Greeks, which have come downto us are enshrined in poetry and surrounded with a


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16 GREECE AND ROMEcertain halo of fiction, though accepted as genuinehistory by the uncritical ancients. The first of thelegends of Greece and anterior to Homer is thevoyage of the Argonauts. It was developed, enlargedand localised by succeeding chroniclers. FromMimnermus, the oldest authority, we learn no furtherthan that ^Eites lived on the banks of the ocean-stream in the farthest East, and Homer alludes tothe voyage, as even in his time world-famous. Butin this critical age, the only thing that can be concededis that at a very remote period, some adventurousGreek navigators did penetrate through the straits ofthe Dardenelles and the Bosphorus into the Euxine.The geographical notions of Homer as gathered fromhis two great epics are embodied in the statements,namely that the Ethiopians, a burnt-faced people, livedin the south of Egypt, on the borders of the ocean-jstream at the extreme limits ofthe world and that theywere divided into two portions, the one dwelling to-wards the setting and the other towards the rising sun.One of the first prose writings in the Greeklanguage is the geographical treatise of Hecateus,which was probably published before the end of thesixth century B. C. The work was named Periodus,that is, Description of the Earth. Unfortunately ithas perished and what we know of it, is collected fromthe fragments quoted in the works of later writers,which have been brought together and published byMiiller-Didot in his Fragmenta Historicum Grcecorum.Between Homer and Hecateus, there had been agreat widening of the horizon. A long time afterHecateus, however, curiosity and love of enquiryseemed to have urged the travellers to visit foreign


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GREECE AND ROME 17countries and among the earliest of this class wasPythagoras, who certainly visited Egypt about 500B; C. Still everything beyond the basin of theMediterranean was only known to the Greeks by thereports of other nations. No Greek navigator ad-ventured beyond the Pillars of Hercules or foundhis way to the Erythraean Sea. Whatever rumourswere current about Ethiopia or India must havereached the Greeks through the Egyptians, thePhoenicians, and later on the Persians. But theconquest of the Greek cities in Asia Minor bythe generals of the great Persian monarchs had letin a new flood of light ; the Milesians and the Samiansbecame subjects of a monarch who resided in Meso-potamia and this must have opened to the conquered-a new and wonderful world. Darius conducted anexpedition against the Scythians crossing into Europe.Soon began the Persian wars and the Greek citizensbecame aware of the kingdoms and cities, of races andlanguages, of which Homer had never dreamt. It mustbe admitted however that from Hecateus the Greekshad already heard the names of the Caspian Sea, ofIndia and the river Indus, as also of the Persian Gulf.*

Next come the monumental works of Herodotus.His works have survived to our times and form anepoch in geography as well as in history. Proceedingsouthward it appears clearly that his knowledge wasconfined to the limits of the Persian kingdom. OfArabia he had only a vague knowledge, but thenavigation on the Red Sea was established and com-merce supplied not only the frankincense and myrrhof Arabia Felix, but cinnamon and cassia of a country

* Vide Gust, The Geography of the Greeks and the Romans.2


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18 GREECE AND ROMEfar beyond India or Ceylon. He alludes to tides asa phenomenon, with which the Greeks were notfamiliar in their own inland sea. To Herodotus weare indebted for all AVC know about the voyage ofSkylax from the mouths of the Indus to the PersianGulf ; from him we first hear of the cotton and thebamboos of India and of the famous story of thegold-digging ants as large as foxes and many wonderfulmyths about India.

The founding of Alexander's Empire brought tothe East an expansion of Greek culture ; it promotedan exchange of commodities between East and West,and a mixture of "Barbarian" and Greek nationali-ties, such as the ancient world had never seen before,Iberian tribes in Spain, Celtic clans in SouthernFrance, Etruscan towns, Italian arts and crafts,,Egyptian legends and Assyrian military systems,Lycian sepulchral architecture and Carian monu-ments, the works of Scythian goldsmiths and Persianpalaces, had already long been subject to Greekinfluence ; so that the Greeks won their place in thehistory of the world far more as citizens of the Medi-terranean sphere than by their domestic struggles.The founding of Alexandria and revival of Babylonhad created great cities in the East, which from theheight of their intellectual and material civilisation,were destined to be the centres of the new Empire.The long stored-up treasures of the Achaemenidsonce more circulated in the markets ; the observa-tions and calculations of the Chaldaean astronomers,,which went back thousands of years, and the unri-valled philosophical doctrines

of the Vedanta andUpanishads became available to the Greeks. Alexander


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GREECE AND ROME 10thought that the political organisation of Hel-lenism, the world-empire, was only possible by afusion of races. But the nuptials of the Orient and theOccident, which were celebrated at the weddingfestival in Susa, remained a slave-marriage, in whichthe West was the lord and master. By the transplant-ation of nations from Asia to Europe and from Europeto Asia, it was proposed to gain for the world-monarchy, with its halo of religious sanctity, thesupport of those disconnected masses which wereunited with the ruling dynasty alone, but had nocoherence among themselves. Thus the old heredi-tary culture of the East and the new-born energy ofthe West seemed to be welded together and Greek hadbecome the language of the civilized provinces of theWestern Asia. And this inheritance of Alexander wasnot transitory. Even if on that summer's evening ofJune 13, 323 B. C., when the news that he was deadand that the world was without a master burst onthe passionately excited populace at Babylon, theplans for the future were abandoned and the dis-integration of the mighty empire was inevitable, yetthe creation of a new sphere of culture, which parti-ally embraced the ancient East, was the work ofAlexander.

The focus of political activity shifted towardsthe East and the direction of the world-commercechanged ; the centres were now the Greek cities foundedor revived by Alexander. The combined commerceof Ethiopia, India, Arabia and Egypt itself, convergedon Alexandria, that city of world-trade and cosmo-politan civilisation. Seleucia on the Tigris, not Baby-lon, became the metropolis of the fertile plains of


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20 GREECE AND ROMEMesopotamia. Thus even the remote countries of theEast now drew nearer to Hellenism. The Greeksof Asia Minor had of course belonged to the sameempire as a part of the Indian nation, so that com-merce was early able to bring into the Punjab theproducts of Greek art ; and philosophical ideas suchas the Indian doctrine of the transmigration of soulsfound their way to Greek territory. It is certainthat the Indians had become familiar with the Greekalphabet at the time of the grammarian Panini, about4th century B. C., but it was not until Alexander'sexpedition, that the Indian trade, which was now soimportant to Alexandria, became a part of Greekcommerce. The Indian custom of ornamentinggolden vessels with precious stones was adopted inthe sphere of Greek culture ; and Indian jacinthbecame a favourite material with lapidaries. Withthe Indian precious stones came their names, opal,beryl, etc. into the West. Indian fables influencedthe Greek travellers' tales and the Greeks welcomedthe fantasies of the Indian folklore. In the agesubsequent to Alexander, a flourishing commercewas maintained with India and Megasthenes inastonishment tells us of the marvellous country itssplendid mountains and groves, its smiling, well-watered plains and the strong, proud race of menwho breathe the pure air.

But an influence also spread from the West to theEast. A typical instance of this is shown by thefact that the Indian expressions connected withwarfare (e.g. Kalinos, a horse-bit = Sans. Khalina ;Surige,a subterranean passage

= Sans. Suranga) foundtheir way from Greek into Sanskrit. The plastic


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GREECE AND ROME 21arts were enriched. Doric (Kashmere), Ionic (Taxila)and Corinthian (Gandhara) pillars arose in thatfairy land and the symbol of God of Love, thedolphin, may have been transported from Greeceto India by the sculptor's art.* The relations ofAsoka with the West in the field of religion andpolitics are stated in his Xlllth inscription, in whichis mentioned that the "Pious" king had succeededin winning over even the Greek princes, Amtiyoga(Antiochus), Tulumaya (Ptolemaus), Amtikina (Anti-gonus), Magas of Cyrene and Alikasadala (Alexanderof Epirus). Greek vitality must have been latentin these kingdoms of Greek conquistadores, sincethey did not shrink from the danger of mutualhostility. But their importance for the establish-ment of relations between Greek speaking world,India and East Asia had not yet been sufficient-ly appreciated. King Demetrius (180-165) and thetown of Demetrias (Dattamittiyaka-Yonaka) whichhe built, appear in the stirring verses of the Maha-bharata. Tibetan hordes drove him out of Bactriaand forced him completely into the Punjab. Thehuge gold coins of his successor Eukratides, withthe bust of a king and a horseman (Dioscuros) aredescribed by Chinese records of the first century B.C.Indian culture and philosophy must have gained afooting in Bactrian kingdom by degrees. KingMenander (c. 125-95 B. C.) was already a Buddhist ;but even when fading away, this Greek civilisationhad strength enough to influence the adjoining Indo-

* For a detailed study of the Hellenic influence on the civilisation ofancient India, vide my book "Hellenism in Ancient India," (published byMessrs. Butterworth & Co., London and Calcutta).


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22 GREECE AND ROMEScythian territory, as is evidenced by the use of Greekletters and inscriptions on the coins of this empire.

Thus in the remotest east of the countries whichwere included in the habitable region on the fringeof the East Asiatic world, the Greek spirit wan-tonly prodigal of its forces, was tearing itself topieces, yet nevertheless was able to influence coinage,art and astronomy, as far as India. In the Nile valleyand at Babylon native authors such as Manetho andBerossus wrote in Greek ; and the Greeks explored theRed Sea, the Caspian, the Nile and the Scythiansteppes. The same Hellenism had founded for itselfin the West a province of Hellenic manners andcustoms and had completely enslaved it. This wasthe Roman Empire, now coming to the fore, which asit took its part in the international commerce, offeredthe Greek intellect a new home with fresh constitu-tional and legal principles.

In the first centuries before and after Christ, whenthe Kushanas were establishing themselves amongthe ruins of the Bactrian and other semi-Greek prin-cipalities of North-Western India, great changes weretaking place in the West. Rome was absorbing theremains of the Empire of Alexander. Syria hadalready fallen and Egypt became a Roman provincein 30 B. C. The dissensions of Civil War ended atActium, after which Augustus settled down to organiseand regulate his vast possessions. The effect of thePax Romana upon trade was of course very marked.Piracy was put down, trade-routes secured and thefashionable world of Rome, undistracted by conflict,began to demand on an unprecedented scale orientalluxuries of every kind. Silk from China, fine muslins


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GREECE AND ROME 23from India and jewels and pearls from the Persiancoast were exported from eastern parts for personaladornment. Drugs, spices, condiments and cosmeticsfrom the East fetched high prices in the bazars ofRome.

The news of the accession of Augustus quicklyreached India. Many Indian states sent embassiesto congratulate him, an honour never paid before toany Western prince. The most striking of these wasone sent by an important king called, according toStrabo, Pandion. Prof. Rawlinson identifies him withKadphises I. Strabo relates that Nicolaus Damas-cenus met at Antioch, Epidaphne the survivor of thisEmbassy to Augustus bearing a letter in Greek fromthe Indian prince. With them was Zarmanochegus(Sramanacharyya) of Barygaza or Broach, who wasevidently a Buddhist monk and who imitated Kalanosby burning himself on a funeral pyre at Athens.Allusions to this Embassy are made by Horace inhis Odes. Florus and Suetonius refer to it and DioCassius speaks of its reception at Samos, B. C. 22-20and mentions Zarmanos as accompanying it. It isalso mentioned by Hieronymus in his translation of theCanon Chronicon of Eusebius, but is placed by him inthe 3rd year of the 188th Olympiad i.e. 26 B. C.*Indian Embassies visited Rome henceforward fromtime to time.; as for instance, an embassy was sentin 41 A. D. from Ceylon to Emperor Claudius. Plinyrelates of this Embassy that a freedman of AnniusPlocamus, being driven into Hippuros, hearing about

Vide Reinaud, Relations politiques et commerciales de I' EmpireRomain avec VAsie Orientate , and H. G. Rawlinson, India and the WesternWorld, loc. cit.


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24 GREECE AND ROMERome, sent thither Rachias and three other Ambas-sadors, from whom Pliny obtained the informationabout Ceylon embodied in his Natural History. Itprobably left Ceylon in the reign of Chandramukha-siva (41-52 A. D.). Another Indian Embassy cameto Emperor Trajan about 107 A. D. and is said tohave been present at the shows given by him to theRoman people. The fourth Embassy was sent toAntoninus Pius about 138 A. D. According to Reinaud,,towards the middle of the 1st century A. D., Taxilais said to have been visited by Apollonius of Tyana.He reached India after traversing Khorasan, theHindukush and the kingdom of Kabul. Apolloniuswas a philosopher of the School of Pythagoras andsought like that sage to extend his knowledge bytravelling into foreign countries. He came toHindusthan to explore the wonders of India and tomake himself acquainted with the learning andwisdom of the Brahmans, the fame of whom had beenspread in the West by the companions of Alexanderthe Great.

Trade between India and Rome continued tothrive steadily during the second and third centuriesA. D. This was chiefly due to the discovery of theexistence of the monsoon winds blowing regularlyacross the Indian Ocean by a captain of the name ofHippalus. To the Arab sailors the phenomenon washowever no secret, as the term Monsoon from theArabic Mauzim implies. There was a temporarylull in the demand of luxuries, after the extraordinaryoutburst of extravagance which culminated in thereign of Nero, but this did not have a serious effectupon commerce. Roman Emperors took an increas-


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GREECE AND ROME 25ing interest in the Eastern questions, but we canonly approximately determine how far the directmaritime traffic went towards the East. In the firstinstance, it took the direction of Barygaza (Broach),which great mart must have remained throughout thewhole period the centre of the Egypto-Indian traffic.In the Flavian period, the whole West coast of Indiawas opened up to the Roman merchants, as far downas the coast of Malabar, the home of the highly-esteemed and dearly-priced pepper, for the sake ofwhich they visited the ports of Muziris (probably Man-galore) and Nelcynda (in Sanskrit, doubtless Nil-kantha). Somewhat further to the south, in Canna-nore, numerous Roman gold coins of the Julio-Claudianepoch have been discovered, which were formerlyexchanged against the spices destined for the Romankitchens. Thus the Western coast of India and eventhe mouth of the Ganges, to say nothing of thefurther Indian Peninsula, maintained regular com-mercial intercourse with the Roman Empire. Chinesesilk was already at an early period sold regularly tothe Occidentals, a; it would appear, exclusively bythe land-route and through the medium partly of theIndians of Barygaza, but chiefly of the Parthians.

That the Hindus did not always wait for othersto come to them for goods is in evidence in a varietyof ways. There is first the statement of CorneliosNepos, who says that Q. Metellus Celer received, fromthe king of the Suevi some Indians, who had beendriven by storm into Germany in the course of avoyage of commerce (vide M'Crindle, Ancient India,.p. 110). This is quite a precise fact, and is borneout by a number of tales of the voyages with the


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26 GREECE AND ROMEhorrors attending navigation depicted in the liveliestcolours in certain classes of writings both in Sanskritand Tamil. So during this period and for a long timeafter, the Hindusthan proper kept touch with theouter world by way of land mainly ; while the Deccankept itself in contact with the rest of the world chieflyby way of the sea. The Baveru Jataka is certainproof of this intercourse by way of the sea. Stillmore remarkable is the fact that the ancient Hindumariners used to have light-houses to warn ships andone such is described at the great port at the mouthof the Kavery, a big tower or a big palmyra trunkcarrying on the top of it a huge oil-lamp.

Now, one of the most curious relics of the tradebetween Egypt and India during the Roman period,has been recently unearthed at Oxyrrhyncus. Itis a papyrus containing a Greek farce of the secondcentury A. D. which deals with the story of a Greeklady named Charition, who had been shipwrecked onthe Canarese coast. The locality is identified by thefact that the king of the country addresses his retinueas indon promoi. Dr. Hultzsch is of opinion that thebarbarous jargon in which they addressed one anotheris actually Canarese.

Again, Dio Chrysostom, who lived in the reign ofTrajan, mentions Indians among the cosmopolitan-crowds to be found in the bazars of Alexandria ; andhe says that they came "by way of trade." Chrysos-tom's information about India, however, is not very.accurate or striking. Much more accurate is theknowledge possessed by the Christian writer Clementof Alexandria, who died about 220 A. D. The mostimportant of his statements are that the Brahmans


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GREECE AND ROME 27despise death and set no value on life, because theybelieve in transmigration of souls and that the Semnoi(Buddhist Sramanas) worship a kind of pyramid,beneath which they imagine that the bones of adivinity of some kind lie buried. This remarkableallusion to the Buddhist Stupa is the earliest referencein Western literature to that unique feature of Bud-dhism and must have been derived from some in-formant intimately acquainted with the doctrines ofGautama Buddha. Clement distinguishes clearly be-tween Sramanai and Brachmanai, while earlier writerslike Megasthenes confuse them. Archelaus of Carrha(278 A. D.) and St. Jerome both mention Buddha byname and Buddha's

story was narrated in the 8thcentury by John of Damascus as the life of a ChristianSaint. We may notice incidentally here that Buddhahas been canonised by the Christian Church under theappellation of St. Josaphat and has been included inthe Martyrology of Pope Gregory XIII. In both theRoman and the Greek Churches, a day is set apartfor St. Josaphat, which name is a corruption of Bodhi-sattwa. There is also reason to suppose that the storyof the life of St. Eustathius Placidus is a version ofNigrodhamiga Jataka. The influence of Buddhismon Christianity is still deeper. The more one readsof Pali Scriptures, the more one is convinced that thelife and teachings of the Buddha, have been duplica-ted in the Gospels of the Apostles. The marvels andthe wonders, which happened at the time of theBuddha's conception, birth, renunciation, temptationand enlightenment and which are to be found in theAchariya Abhuta Sutta, and Majjhima Nikaya. have acurious similarity to the miracles in the Gospels. It


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28 GREECE AND ROMEseems evident that Buddhism by means of its conventsfor monks and nuns, its legends of Saints, its worshipof relics, and above all, through its rich ritual andhierarchical pomp did exercise an influence on thedevelopment of Christian worship and ceremony. Wemay therefore say with Prof. Sylvain Levi, that "itlooks as if the whole universe moved under a commonimpulse to a work of salvation under the auspices ofBuddhism."With Cosmas Indicopleustes however, who visitedIndia in the 6th century A. D., the last voyage of theancient world was undertaken. The long night ofthe Middle Ages was now settling down upon theWestern world. The Neo-Sassanian Empire, with its-great Persian renaissance, had manned a fleet whichwas fast sweeping the Roman vessels from Easternwaters. In 364 A. D., the first fatal step in the down-fall of Rome had been taken when the Empire wasdivided ; in 410, came the Goths and Vandals and50 years later the mightiest kingdom the world hasever seen had ceased to exist. Trade with the East,,in spite of Persian rivalry struggled feebly on and thelatest recorded Eastern Embassy to Constantinoplereached that city in 530 A. D.

Mr. Sewell, who has made an elaborate study ofthe Roman Coins found in India, considers that anexamination of the coin-finds leads to the followingconclusions (vide J. R. A. S. 1904, p. 591) :

(i) There was hardly any commerce betweenRome and India during the Consulate.(ii) With Augustus began an intercourse which,

enabling the Romans to obtain Orientalluxuries during the early days of the


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CENTRAL ASIA 20Empire, culminated in the time of Nero,who died A. D. 68.

(Hi) From this time forward the trade declinedtill the time of Caracalla, A. D. 217.

(iv) From the time of Caracalla it almostentirely ceased.

(v) The maritime activity revived again,though slightly, under the ByzantineEmperors.He also infers that the trade under the early

Emperors was chiefly in luxuries ; under the laterones in industrial products ; and under the Byzantinesthe commerce was with the South-West of India andnot with the interior. He moreover differs fromthose who find an explanation of this fluctuation inthe political and social condition of India itself, andthe facilities or their absence for navigating the seas ;and considers that the cause is to be sought for in thepolitical and social condition of the Romans them-selves. We fully agree with this view of Mr. Sewell asis borne out by the contemporary history of Romeabout the 4th and 5th centuries A. D.

CENTRAL ASIATill comparatively recent times, the vast highlands

of Asia with their glittering ramparts of eternal snow,their pasture grounds, their bleak deserts and verdantoases, were regarded with awe by the civilised nations.It seems that science in harmony with the religionsand myths of so many people has succeeded in demons-


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30 CENTRAL ASIAtrating by almost irrefragable proofs that CentralAsia was the primitive home of mankind, the cradle,whence our own forefathers were sent out in thepride of youth to find out eventually a new homein Europe, while others descended into India. Themass of nebulous tradition is brought into contactwith the traces of widely diverse nationalities andreligions and must consult in its turn the annals ofthe Indians, Iranians, Greeks, Scythians, Chinese,Turks and Russians. Indeed the earliest referencesto Turkestan that have reached us, are containedin the Indian and Iranian Epics and lend colourto the theory that the Pamirs were the birth-placeof the Aryan race.* Thus the belief in the im-portance of Central Asia for the earliest historyof mankind was not altogether irrational. Aroundthis citadel of the world lay, clustered in wide semi-circle, the ancient countries of civilisation, Babylonia,China and India, and all who believe in a commonfountain-head of these higher civilisations mustlook for it in Central Asia. In later times, the im-portance of Middle Asia for the history of mankindseems indeed much changed but not less perceptible.It no longer produces the germs of civilisation, butlike an ever-glowing volcano, sends out streams ofwarlike nomads and shakes the earth far and wide,so that smiling lands become desolate and prosperoustowns sink into dust. From the earliest times to thepresent day mankind has been deeply influenced bythe existence of Central Asia and its races. Indiawas repeatedly overrun by hordes of Central Asiaticnomads, but for a long time it exercised little in-

Vide Ch. de Ujfalvy, Les Aryens au nord et au sud de V Hindou Kouch.


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CENTRAL ASIA 31fluence generally on the steppe region and almostnone politically, since the barrier of the Himalayaswas a deterrent from military enterprises and apartfrom this, the natural features of Tibet offered nc*attraction to a conqueror. But here, as in so manyother cases, the spirit of religion has been mightierthan the sword. Northern India, that great seminaryof religious and philosophic thought, gradually madeits influence felt in Central Asia and by Buddhistpropaganda revolutionised the lives and opinionsof the nomads. It was of course a case of scatteredseeds, which were carried across the mountains andstruck root independently, and we must not imagineany permanent union of Indian Philosophy with thenomad culture of the steppes.

The civilised countries of Western Asia werebetter protected than India against the tide of rest-less nomads. Between the Caspian Sea and theHimalayas rise the mountains of Khorassan andAfghanistan. Eastward of these, the fertile districtsof the Oxus and the Jaxartes, where agriculturalcolonies and fortified towns could grow up, formeda vanguard of civilisation. Between the Caspianand the Black Sea, the Caucasus rises like a bulwarkbuilt for the purpose and cuts off Western Asia fromsteppes of Southern Russia, that ancient arena ofnomad hordes. So long as the natural boundariesare maintained, the fertile plains of Western Asiawere safe from the raids and invasions of the nomads.But the people of Iran, who guarded civilisation there,at length succumbed to the attack. The nomadsfound homes to their liking in the steppes, whichabound in Iran, Syria and Asia Minor and consequent-


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32 CENTRAL ASIAly preserved their individuality far longer than inChina and were only partially absorbed by the peoplesthey had conquered. Europe on the other hand wasnever able to ward off the inroads made from CentralAsia. The Huns advanced to the Atlantic, the Avarsand Hungarians invaded France, the Mongols reachedEastern Germany and the Osman wave spent itselfagainst the walls of Vienna. That continent stillharbours in the Magyars, the Turks and numerousFinnish and Mongolian tribes, the remnants of theseinhabitants of the Heart of Asia.A prolonged study of the historical traditions,which delight in recording the wars, murders and rava-ges of these nomads, and which picture the absoluteterror which the incursions of these roving Asiatictribes filled the hearts of the survivors, might welllead us to paint the perpetrators of such horrors inthe darkest colours and to consider them as a speciesof ravenous wild beasts rather than as beings deser-ving the name of men. But such a view would bepremature. The nature of herdsman, who growsup on the wild steppe and in consequence of hiswanderings is forced to limit his possessions to afew movables, has a simplicity which is not devoid ofdignity. The wide, clear horizon of his home isreflected in his temperament. The flowers of imagina-tion and thought, which blossom so magnificentlyin the tropical plains of India or in the luxuriantgardens of Iran, find no nourishment in the wildsteppes of Central Asia. A sober clearness of thoughtis as characteristic of the inhabitants of Middle Asia,as of the Arabs who grow up on a similar soil.

The period of more certain history, which begins


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CENTRAL ASIA 33with the founding of the Bactrian Empire, showsus that India, which from all time had possessed an^agic attraction for every conquering people was oneof their first victims. But the southern part of theBactrian Empire stood a bulwark against theirinroads for some hundred years more. Then about25 B. C. Kujula Kadphises. who had reunited Yue-Chi after their division into five clans, subdued themodern Afghanistan. This immediately opened theroad to the Indian possessions of the Bactrian Empire.About the year 10 A.D., his successor Huomo Kad-phises advanced into North-Western India and thuslaid the foundation of the Indo-Scythian Empire.Undeniably the fact that Bactria as far as the bordersof Central Asia was then united with large portionsof India under one rule, did much to make the Indianinfluence, especially Buddhism then flourishing inIndia, felt far away northward. India generallyentered into closer and more direct relations withCentral Asia. Fifty years after the establishmentof the Indo-Scythian Empire, the Buddhist propa-ganda had already reached China.

But while a large part of Central Asia first acquiresimportance for the history and culture of mankindon the appearance of nomad peoples and as thefountain-head of a disintegrating force, the Tarimbasin, which is also called Eastern Turkestan or HighTartary, claims the attention of the historian farearlier and in another sense. The Tarim basin formedin ancient days the bridge between the Eastern andWestern Asiatic civilisation, even if it was not aninternational highway, and witnessed a higher civi-lisation develop in its fertile regions. The key to

3


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34 CENTRAL ASIAmany problems of the pre-historic period lies buriedunder the burning sands of Eastern Turkestan.

The ancient trade-communications through theTarim basin are certainly to be regarded as a relicof the former connection with civilisation. Thenomads, however as such, are not inclined to amassthe heavy goods, which the town merchants store upin their vaults. In the Tarim basin, therefore, thereal traders were always to be found among thesettled inhabitants of the oases, although the securityand success of their commerce depended on thegood-will of the nomads. [The earliest recorded tradewhich passed through the Tarim basin and broughtEastern and Western Asia in some sort of communica-tion was the silk-trade]. Obstacles indeed were presen-ted by the great extent of the province, the peculiar-ities of its geography and soil, the vast deserts whichintersected it and the lawless hordes which infestedit. As it was impossible for a single traveller toundertake these long and arduous journeys it becamenecessary to collect companies either sufficientlynumerous to defend themselves or able to pay for theirprotection of a body of guards. Such bodies of menor Caravans as we call them, could not be collected ata moment's notice or in every place ; and it wasnecessary that a rendezvous should be appointed, sothat the merchants and travellers might know whereto join a sufficient force for their common defence.In like manner, the places of resort for the sale as wellas the purchase of their merchandise were necessarilyfixed, being recommended by their favourable positionor by some other circumstance, such as long usage,In the vast steppes and sandy deserts, which they had


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CENTRAL ASIA 35to traverse, Nature had sparingly allotted to the travel-lers a few scattered places of rest. Such places of restbecame also entrepots of commerce and not infre-quently the sites of temples and sanctuaries, under theprotection of which the merchant prosecuted his trade,and to which pilgrims resorted ; and these centresfrequently grew to great and opulent cities andcontributed by motives of interest or necessity toattract to the same route the various bands of travel-lers, e. g., Samarkand, Kashgar, Khotan &c.The towns and trading settlements in the Tarimbasin, which are mentioned by Aristeas, can partiallybe identified with still existing modern localities.This is impossible in case of many, as may be con-cluded by the great number of towns buried beneaththe sands which have been recently explored byDr. Sven Hedin and Sir M. A. Stein. Furtheraid towards identification are furnished by theaccounts of the Macedonian merchant Maes orTitianus, who enables us to fix the stationson the East Asiatic trade-route in the firstcentury A.D. This road led from Samarkand toFerghana, whence the "Stone Tower" and thevalley of the Kisil Su were reached, at the entranceof which an important trading-town lay in theterritory of Kasia. This was certainly the modernKashgar, for which natural advantages of situationhave secured uninterruptedly since ancient times aforemost position among the cities of the Tarim basin.But the connection with India, the beginnings ofwhich are obscure, was of great importance to thiscivilisation. In this way, Eastern Turkestan becamethe bridge on which Indian manners and customs


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86 CENTRAL ASIA-and above all Indian religion passed both to Chinaand the rest of Central Asia, destined in course of timeto work great revolutions in the character and habitsof the Central Asiatic peoples.No success, it is true, attended the attempts tocome into direct communication with India throughTibet, and thus obviate the necessity of bringingIndian goods by a detour through the Tarim basin,although the Emperor Wu Ti made various efforts withthis object in view and a small transit trade directlyfrom India to Tibet must have been in existencelong before his time. Maritime trade flourished at alater time, when the distance between the Chineseand Indian ports had been immensely lessened by theconquest of Southern China. It is significant that thereal impetus to maritime commerce was not givenuntil the second century A.D. when the Chineselost the command of the highways of Central Asia. Thelong series of disorders, which soon afterwards brokeout in China, completely checked any vigorous foreignpolicy, while the growing prosperity of the maritimecommerce diminished to a great extent the importanceof the overland trade. The petty states of the Tarimbasin for many years subsequently led a quiet exis-tence, more influenced by India than by China.The importance of Buddhism for the west ofCentral Asia was chiefly felt before the Mongol period.The activity of the Buddhist missionaries outsidethe confines of India could not be vigorously exerteduntil the new religion had taken firm root in its nativecountry. The period of the great Asoka marks boththe victory of Buddhism in Northern India and theextension of political and religious influences towards


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CENTRAL ASIA 37the northwest. Kashmir, the bridge of CentralAsia, recognised the suzerainty of Asoka. Evenif Buddhism was unable to gain a firm footing there,still access had been obtained to the civilised oases ofthe Tarim basin, where the new religion quickly founda ready acceptance. In externals, this Buddhism,it must be admitted, was no result of purely Indianculture. In the first place, the Iranians had en-croached upon India and left traces of their nationalityon the manners and customs of the people ; and afterthe age of Alexander the Great, an offshoot ofHellenistic civilisation existed in Bactria whichexercised an effective influence on the art and cultureboth in the Tarim basin and in north-western India.The Graeco-Buddhist art and culture of northwestIndia found a new home in the Tarim basin. Butgenerally speaking, Indians of pure race preachedthe new faith and their labours led naturally enoughto a wide diffusion of Indian literature and culture.A large non-religious immigration also took place.The influence of India apparently first made it-self felt in Khotan, where a son of Asoka was said tohave founded a dynasty. Khotan, owing to itsgeographical position, generally forms the connect-ing link between Central Asia and India and showsin its civilisation abundant traces of Indian influ-ence (vide M. A. Stein, The Sand-buried Ruinsof Khotan.} A large number of Buddhist shrinesand monasteries were to be found in Khotan. Thedensely populated oasis, helped by its religious impor-tance, repeatedly obtained great power, although itcould not permanently keep it, since, as the key tothe trade-route from India and as the southern road


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38 CENTRAL ASIAfrom the West to the East, it appeared a valuableprize to all the conquering tribes of Central Asia.From Khotan, Buddhism spread farther over theTarim basin and its northern boundary. The clearestproof of this is to be found in the numerous cave-temples constructed on Indian model, as well as inthe products of Graeco-Buddhist art, which theexplorations of Sir Marc Aurel Stein have broughtto light, especially in the western part of EasternTurkestan. It was certainly the settled portionsof the nation, which were steeped in the ancientcivilisation, that most eagerly adopted the higherforms of religion. The nomads were less satisfied withit. But the efforts of civilisation and religion totame the barbarous people of Central Asia had beencontinued for many centuries. Temples of Buddha,Zoroastrian seats of culture, Christian churches andMoslem mosques arose in the oases ; industries flou-rished, trade brought foreign merchants into thecountry and those who aimed at a refinement ofmanners and customs and a nobler standard of lifewere amply provided with brilliant models. Of thenomads a less favourable account must be given ;and yet in many of them the higher forms of religionhad struck root. Skilled writers were to be foundamong them, and the allurements of civilised lifemade considerable impression. The road whichwas destined to lead these tribes out of their ancientbarbarism had already been often trodden ; theforces of civilisation seemed pressing on victoriouslyin every direction. The nomad spirit then once morerallied itself to strike a blow more formidable thanany which had previously fallen. The effort was


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CHINA 39successful and, as the result of it, a region once pros-perous and progressive lay for generations at themercy of races whose guiding instincts were thejoy of battle and the lust of pillage. The worldglowed with a blood-red light in the Mongol age.Twice, first under Genghis Khan and his immediatesuccessors and secondly under Timur, the hordesof horsemen burst over the civilised countries of Asiaand Europe ; twice they swept on like a storm-cloud,as if they wished to crush every country and convertit into a pasture for their flocks. And so thoroughlywas the work of ravage and murder done, that to thepresent day, desolate tracts show the traces of theirdestructive fury. These were the last great eruptionsof the Central Asiatic volcano before Civilisationultimately triumphed.

CHINAChina is the only kingdom on the habitable globe,

which has continued without interruption from aremote antiquity to modern times. Though laterin date than Egypt and the kingdoms of Western Asia,yet its authentic history embraces a period of twothousand and five hundred years, while the compa-ratively high state of civilisation evidenced at thebeginning of this epoch implies another one thousandand five hundred years of previous development.Remoteness and inaccessibility have invested thiscountry, which was to East Asia what Greece andHome were to Europe, with a mysterious splendour


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40 CHINAwhich has often led the investigators to misestimateits actual condition.

The Chinese literature, so vast in extent, containsvery considerable accounts of the geography of Asiaat different times and of the nations who lived in thatpart of the ancient world. The greater part of theseaccounts is to be found in the histories of the variousdynasties which have up to the present time, suc-cessively ruled in China. At the end of each of thesedynastic histories, twenty-four in number, a sectionmore or less extensive is to be found devoted to theforeign countries and nations who came in contact withthe Chinese Empire. They are generally termed Sz*Yi, the four kinds of barbarians, in allusion to the fourquarters of the globe. These notions were probablycollected by Chinese envoys, or compiled from thereports of the envoys or merchants of these countriescoming to China. Almost all Chinese works treatingof foreign countries drew their accounts from thesesources

;and even the celebrated Chinese geographer,Ma Tuan Lin, who wrote under the Mongol dynasty,,

has for the greater part compiled his excellent work,the Wen hien Thung Kao, from the dynastic histories.*Another category of Chinese accounts of foreigncountries are those drawn up in the form of narr-atives of journeys undertaken by the Chinese. Itseems that the Chinese never travelled for pleasureor visited distant countries for the purpose of en-larging the sphere of their ideas. All the narrativesof their travels owe their origin either to militaryexpeditions or to official missions of the Chinese

Vide Marquia d'Hervey de St. Denys, Ethnographie des Peuplee'trangers a la Chine.


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CHINA 41Emperors, or they are written by Buddhist and otherpilgrims, who visited India or other parts of Asiain search of sacred literature. They often containvery valuable accounts regarding the ancient geo-graphy of Asia, but it is not easy to lay them undercontribution in elucidating this subject in a scientificsense. Generally, it is very difficult to search themout, for they do not exist for the greater part asseparate publications, but lie concealed among thenumerous volumes of the Chinese collections ofreprints (Is'ung shu). Many of these interestingancient narratives are lost and their existence informer times is only known from ancient cata-logues or by quotations of other Chinese authors.Now, the Chinese records tell us that foreign tradein China had for a long time been covered by the nameinseparable from the early foreign enterprises ofthe Chinese Courts, of "tribute." The word "tribute"in Chinese annals was nothing but a substitutefor what might as well have been called "exchangeof produce" or trade the trade with the foreignnations being a monopoly of the Court. The latterwould refuse to trade unless it was done under itsown conditions, namely the appearance of the offeringof gifts as a sign of submission and admiration on thepart of the distant monarch. In each case,*the fullequivalent was paid for these offerings in the shapeof counter-gifts presented to the so-called Amb-assadors by the Chinese Court. Such "tributary"countries were Arabia, Persia and India. Thetribute-bearers were in reality nothing better thanprivate merchants who purchased the counter-giftsof the Court, under the pretext of bringing tribute


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42 CHINAin the name of some distant monarch. Such rela-tions existed between China and India from the oldesttimes ; they had assumed larger dimensions underthe Han Dynasty, when certain nations were compelledby force of arms to send in tribute, while others likethe Parthians and Syrians volunteered it as a matterof speculation. The regularity with which thesetransactions took place led to the creation of court-officers connected with their management. Weread in Sui-shu that an office called Ssu-fang-Kuanwas established under the Emperor Yang-ti duringthe period 605-617 at the Chinese capital for the-special purpose of receiving the Ambassadors of thecountries in the four directions of the compass, viz.,those to the east, principally Japan ; in the south,represented by the southern barbarians on the con-tinent, and in Indonesia ; in the west represented bythe Central Asiatic and trans-Himalayan tribes ;and in the north representatives of the pie-ti, e.g., theTartars. For each of these four classes of traffic aspecial officer was appointed, whose duty it was tosuperintend "the exchange of produce," besides theduties connected with the reception of the mission.

Of all the ports open to trade during the severalperiods of Chinese history, Canton, or some localitynear Csfnton, is probably the oldest. Dr. Hirthsupposes that the ocean-trade between China andthe countries of Western Asia had its terminus insome part of Tongking or Annam on the southernfrontier of China and he identifies this port withthe Eastern terminus of Roman navigation, Katti-.gara, supporting the suggestion made by Baronvon Richtofen. Prof. Hirth also is inclined to believe


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CHINA 43that this part of Canton, the cradle of foreign trade,has ever since the 3rd century B.C. been one of themain channels of ocean-commerce. The mentionof white pigeons being kept on board the sea-goingships may contain a certain hint as to their nationality ;the use of carrier-pigeons, according to some hist-orians, was introduced into China by Western Asiatictraders. Carrier-pigeons are mentioned as a familiarPersian institution by Macandi and during theMongol rule in Persia important news was entrusted tothe flying messengers and these were probably intro-duced into China by the end of 7th century A.D.

Now, T'ien-du or T'ien-chu is the name bywhich India was known to the Chinese since the 1stcentury B.C., when Buddhism was introduced fromIndia to China. But a more ancient Chinese namefor India is Shin-du. " This name evidently renderingthe Sanskrit Sindhu (river), which was taken forIndia, appears in the Chinese annals about 120 B.C.,after the expedition of General Chang-Kiento WesternAsia, who reported on the country of Shin-du fromhearsay" (Dr. Bretschneider, Mediceval Researches).That there was a brisk transmarine commerce betweenIndia and China is amply proved from the followingChinese Texts :*

(i) ' The inhabitants of Tats'in (Syria) trafficby sea with Au-hsi (Parthia) and T'ien-chu (India), the profit of which tradeis ten-fold,-"Hou-han-shu" [ From thispassage, it certainly appears that thepeople of Tats'in traded by sea with

Vide G. Hirth, China and the Roman Orient.


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44 CHINAIndia and China and that the profit derivedfrom this trade was theirs. ]

(ii) 'The inhabitants of Au-hsi (Parthia) andT'ien-chu have trade with China ; its profitis hundred-fold'-"C7mi-s/m." (written c.265 A.D.)

(iii) 'As regards Tats'in and T'ien-chu farout on the Western ocean, we have to saythat although the envoys of the two HanDynasties, Chang-Chien and Pan Chlao, haveexperienced the special difficulties of thisroad, yet traffic in merchandise has beeneffected and goods have been sent out to theforeign tribes, the force of winds drivingthem far away across the waves of thesea' "Sung-shu" (written about 500 A.D.).

(iv) 'In the west of it (T'ien-chu or India),they carry on much trade by sea to "Tats*in" and "Au-hsi," specially in the articlesof Tats'in, such as all kinds of preciousthings, coral, amber, chim-pi (gold jadestone)chu-chi (a kind of pearls) etc., -"Liang-shu" (written c. 629 A.D.)

(v) ' The merchants of this country frequentlyvisit Funam (Siam), T'ien-chu, Jih-nan(Annam), Chiao-Chih (Tongking)'-"Ltang-shu." (date uncertain)

(vi) 'The country of Tats'in, also called Likan,is on the West of the great sea, west ofAu-hsi ( Parthia}. They always wish tosend embassies to China, but the Par-thians wanted to make profit out of theirtrade with us and would not allow us to


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CHINA 45pass their country. Further, they are

always anxiousto get Chinese silk'-"Wei-

lio" (composed in 220-224 A.D.)(vii) The fleet of one-hundred and twenty-five

vessels which sailed from Myos Hormos tothe coast of Malabar or Ceylon annually,about the time of the summer solstice, tra-versed the ocean with the periodical assis-tance of the monsoon in about 40 days. Itappears also from Wu-shih-wai-kuo-chuani.e.the account of foreign countries at the timeof Wu, 222 A.D. that "ships were provid-ed with seven sails ; they sailed from Kang-tiao-chou and with favourable winds couldenter Tats'in within a month". Dr. Bretsch-neider presumed that the city of Kang-tiao-chou was on or near the Indian west-coast. (See his article in the China Review).

Thus the port of Tats'in, at which the Chinese andIndian goods were chiefly landed, must have beenat the head of the present Gulf of Akabah, the ancientSinus ^Elanitius (Strabo, XVI, p. 781). The naturaladvantages of a country like Syria must at any timehave commanded a superior position in orientaltrade, which is quite compatible with its comparativelyinferior position as a political power. Near the port wasthe city of Petra, so-called by the Greek conquerors.During the first two centuries A.D., Petra was theseat of an immense commerce the great emporiumof Indian commodities, where merchants from all partsof the globe, met for the purposes of traffic.* Thecity fell under the Muhammedan Empire and from

Kiepert, Lehrb. d. alien Geogr. p. 184.


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46 CHINAthat time to the beginning of the present century wasnearly lost to the memory of man. When the cele-brated Swiss traveller Burckhardt discovered itsforgotten site in 1811, he found only a solitary columnand one ruined edifice left standing of all the sump-tuous structures that once crowded this romanticvale. It need hardly be added that the prosperityof Petra was mainly dependent upon the caravan-trade, which at this entrepot changed carriage andpassed from the hands of the southern to the northernmerchants. Mommsen writes that "it was in theports of the Nabatsean merchants, in the peninsulaof Sinai and in the neighbourhood of Petra, that goodscoming from the Mediterranean were exchangedfor Indian produce."

The introduction of Buddhism from India was anevent of the highest importance for the moral develop-ment of China and is the most striking incidentof the rule of Han Dynasty and indeed in the wholeof China's history. An unauthenticated accountstates that Indian missionaries had entered Chinaas early as 227 B.C. and in 122 B.C. a Chinese expedi-tion is said to have advanced beyond Yarkand and tohave brought back a golden image of Buddha. Com-munication between India and China becomesvery frequent from this date. Knowledge of foreigndoctrine entered the country and in 61 A.D. EmperorMing-ti sent messengers to India to bring backBuddhist books and priests. The priests werebrought and one of them Kashiapmadanga (Kasy-apa Matanga ) translated a Sutta in Layong. Heis followed in the same year by Fa-Ian, like theother, a Sramana of Central India.


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CHINA 47The development of Buddhism seems to have

advanced somewhat slowly at first. Not until thebeginning of the 4th century do we hear men of Chineserank began to take upon themselves the vows ofBuddhist monks. At the same period large monas-teries were erected in North China and nine-tenthsof the common people are said at that time to haveembraced the Buddhist teaching. The kingdomof Tsin seems to have been the chief centre of Budd-hism and here in 405, a new translation of the sacredBuddhist books was brought out. An army wassent to India and brought back teachers to Chang-an,who there undertook the work aided by 800 otherpriests and under the Emperor's personal supervision.Intercourse between China and India being constantat the date, numerous travellers went southward,returned with sages and books and wrote the storyof their travels. In 420, the Tsin Dynasty fell andwas replaced in the north by the Tartar We and inthe south by the native dynasty of Sung. Theprinces of the two new dynasties at first displayedan aversion to Buddhism. But after the death ofthe first Emperor of the We dynasty, permissionwas given to erect a Buddhist shrine in every town.Similarly the persecution by the Sung princes soonceased and their government gained a reputation forthe special favour which it showed to Buddhism.Embassies arrived from Ceylon and from Kapilavastu,all of which referred to the uniformity of religion,and sang the praises of the Sung Emperors of thekingdom of Yauchen. In 526, the 28th Buddhistpatriarch Ta Mo (Bodhidharma) came to China bysea ; the downfall of Buddhism in the country of its


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48 FURTHER INDIAorigin had forced him and many of his co-religioniststo seek a new home in China, chiefly in Layong, where3000 Indians are said to have lived in the 6th centuryA.D. But in 714, a violent persecution of the Budd-hists broke out. In spite of this, however, individualpriests continued to occupy state offices and the Indianswere entrusted with the arrangements of the Calendar.Under the succeeding dynasties a reaction set in anda strong support was given to Buddhism by the MongolDynasty (1280-1388). The semi-barbarous con-queror, Kublai Khan, was a zealous Buddhist andhis successors followed his example. Intercoursewith India increased and Indian Buddhism beganto exercise an important influence on Chinesebelief.*

FURTHER INDIAThe

prehistoric periodof Further India is shrouded

in gloom, though a few vague and general indicationsmay be derived from the sciences of comparativephilology and anthropology. These indicationsalike point to early racial commixture and fusion.From a philological point of view, several primordialgroups stand out in isolation. We have no meansof deciding where the first ancestors of these groupsmay have dwelt. Upon the dates and histories againof the ancient racial movements we have no informa-tion whatever. Chinese histories refer indeed to anEmbassy sent from Indo-China probably from Tong-king in the year 1110 B.C. to the Imperial Chinese

Vide Max Von Brandt in "The World s History." Vol. III.


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FURTHER INDIA 49Court of Chau. In 214 B.C. and in 109 A.D. ChineseGenerals founded dynasties of their own in Tong-king. However we have no other information uponthe general history of those ages. The wild imagin-ation of the natives has so transformed the legends,that though these go back to the creation of the world,they give us no historical material of any valuewhatsoever.

It is not till the first century A.D. that the generaldarkness is somewhat lifted. On the northern frontierand in the east, we find a restless movement and aprocess of struggle with varying success, betweenthe Chinese and the native races, while in the southHindu civilisation is everywhere victorious. Themost important source of our knowledge upon theaffairs of Further India in those ages is Ptolemy'sdescription of the world, dating from the first halfof the second century A.D. The explanation of manyof his statements is due to the energy of Col. Gerini.Ptolemy informs us that in his time the coast-lineof Further India was inhabited throughout its lengthby the Sindoi (Hindus). As their importance in Indo-China was at that time great enough for the Alexan-drine geographer to describe as a race of wide dis-tribution, the advance of Hindu civilisation musthave taken place at least some centuries previously.

But the introduction of Brahman civilisationwas merely a victory for a few representatives of ahigher culture. The physical characteristics of thepopulation of Further India were but little influencedby this new infusion. The movement can hardlyhave begun before the period at which the Brahmanscolonised Orissa. From this point Brahmanism ap-

4


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50 FURTHER INDIAparently made its way to Indo-China by sea. Onthe one hand, Brahmans did not advance along theland-route, long hidden aid leading through theGanges Delta and Assam, until the second half ofthe present millennium. On the other hand, theproof of the fact that the colonisation was of a trans-marine origin is the predominance of Hinduismupon the coast (cp. the statement

of Ptolemy, above).The movement to Indo-China cannot have startedfrom Southern India, for the reason that Brahman

Documents

Banerjee [1921] India, As Known to the Ancient World