circuit, surrounded by a deep moat, the walls having 57° towers and sixty-four gates, Buddhism must have been in an infant condition, as the only allusion Megasthenes seems to have made to it is in his enumeration of the various orders of sophists, amongst whom the "Srámans" of that system, perhaps, appear. Had the subject been sufficiently prominent to attract his attention, the portions of his work in which it would have been described, are thought to be among the fragments that are still forthcoming. The inference is strong that the Buddhist schism had not then assumed any very great prominence or any position of active hostility towards the Brahman orthodoxy of the period. Nor does any crying necessity for reform appear to have then existed, for Megasthenes found Magadha society in a very creditable condition. The envoy reports that the people were brave, honest, and truthful, while slavery was unknown among them. But it was evidently at the same time a society that was too complicated, strange, and extensive to be completely understood or correctly described by an outside observer, however intelligent, and however desirous of giving a faithful report. That Megasthenes intended to be accurate is evident from the one instance of his statement of the distance of Palibothra from the Indus, which is correct within a few miles; but he could not possibly understand all the peculiarities of a state of life so unlike anything previously known to himself. Reading his report through the medium of our present more exact knowledge we are enabled to form some estimate of what the facts may have been. We may conjecture, for example, that the four castes, or classes, of the Mánava code formed the basis of the social hierarchy, though to Megasthenes it seemed as if the people were divided into seven; the higher and lower classes alike beginning to recognise the need for a division of labour. Thus, there were philosophers who were not statesmen, and statesmen who were not philosophers, a distinction by no

means confined to ancient India. There were one hundred and eighteen kingdoms; that of Chandra was called the empire of "the Prasii,” and claimed a kind of federal superiority, but each township reminded the Greek of the little republics of his own land. The later conditions of political literature were hardly anticipated, for "the philosopher who is found mistaken in his predictions has to observe silence for the remainder of his life."

For purposes of war considerable forces were always in a state of mobilisation, inclusive of an establishment of ordnance, which consisted of war-chariots and fighting elephants but it was characteristic of the mild and humane habits of the people that the husbandman was not to be disturbed in his operations by any military doings; and, as in the English Wars of the Roses, the pursuits of agriculture were allowed to continue amid the marchings and engagements of contending armies. The soldiers were of good courage and discipline; and such was the efficiency of the police, or the virtue of the population, that in a camp of 400,000 persons which followed the progress of the emperor like a moving city, the value of stolen property only averaged something like £3 daily. In matters of justice the ruler sate with a sort of jury, but none of our Greek authorities seem to have known of any written code of law. The revenue was derived from the rent of land rather than from taxation; and the expression of Strabo-" the whole land is royal"-must be taken as implying that the whole surplus produce was to be used for the common benefit. There was no private ownership; but after the necessities of the husbandman had been provided for, the net balance went to meet the wants of the public service. It seems that this balance was assumed to equal a fourth of the total yield, the remaining three-quarters being left for the subsistence of the cultivator, and for the replacement of stock, etc. In towns the artisans were expected to contribute to the public service by way of labour

D

estimated sometimes at one day in every month: every unit, in town or country, was administered by the chief revenue officer. The use of brick and stone in building is not mentioned; and from this and other considerations it is believed that the efforts of architecture were confined to structures of timber, which was then, probably, very abundant. The fortifications of walled towns were made of earth. most other respects the manners and customs of the people were those of the modern Hindu; their habit of cooking and eating, each caste apart from all others, is particularly noticed. They used but little fermented liquor, and were temperate and patient, ready for just warfare, but all lovers of peace.

In

Such is the golden age of Hinduism as seen by outsiders. The Emperor Chandra is said to have abdicated and gone to the Deccan, where he ended his days as a hermit. Of his son and successor, it is only known that his name was Mitra Gupta,* and that he renewed the alliance with his European kinsfolk. The Empire continued to expand; it embraced what have been called "the three Kulingas," or coasts; that is-(1st) the northern portion of what is now known as the Coromandel coast; (2nd) the sea-board of Bengal with its "Hinterland"; and (3rd) the Burmese coast from Chittagong to Arakan. This is accordingly taken as the era when Brahmanism first spread to the Straits, where an ancient form of that system is still existing, especially in the island of Bali, off the coast of Java. Of this, indeed, tradition is our only evidence; perhaps the real emigration was later, but it is in the time of Asoka, the son of Mitra, that the Empire received its chief aggrandisement and the era of this monarch-B.C. 264-223-is the first firm ground in Indian history.

Of the period of Asoka's reign there can be no manner of

* But he is also named by some writers "Vindusára," which was perhaps a title.

doubt, any more than of the extent of his power. The subjoined summary of events in his career has been collected, chiefly from the authority of contemporaneous inscriptions. About 263 B.C. he was Viceroy for his father, in Málwa, having his seat of government at the famous old city of Ujjain. Soon after he was engaged in a struggle for the succession, by reason of his father's death; and he did not finally obtain the throne until 260, after a series of successful wars against his competing brothers. In 257 he publicly embraced the faith of the Buddhists; and in the following year pursued the policy of his family by concluding a treaty with his cousin Antiochus II., grandson of Seleukos Nikator. This Prince soon afterwards lost the kingdoms of Parthia and Bactria, which were never reunited to the Macedonian possessions. Asoka, convert and mighty Emperor, trusted to moral suasion for the spread of his new creed. Tradition asserts that he erected no less than eighty-four thousand doctrinal monuments; but the actual inscriptions hitherto discovered amount to no more than forty-two. Nevertheless, being in various characters and dialects, and in places far distant from each other, they afford considerable evidence of a widely-extended influence, and render it more than probable that there was, at that period, an Empire of India north of the Narbada and the Máhánadi at least; for these proclamations are found cut on rocks and stones, or inscribed on pillars erected for their reception, to the north of Peshawar, and in Ganjam, in the hills of Dehra Dun, on the shores of Kathiawar, and in the forests south of Nagpur. Their contents are as honourable to the Imperial preacher as they are demonstrative of his power and influence; and they serve to show that Asoka-or Priyádási as he calls himself—(probably a religious title) cared for all the various classes of his people. He provided for the instruction of the aborigines and foreign neighbours, while continuing ever mindful of the more material

interests of all the inhabitants of the country. Thus, the inscriptions set forth that the Emperor sent missionaries to "the utmost limits of barbarian lands to associate with all unbelievers for the spread of the faith." At the same time roads were made in India, and medical attendance provided for the sick, while care was taken to maintain the purity of belief and practice among the faithful. The doctrine was fixed, and a standard of orthodoxy formed at a council held in 244 B.C. The Canon of Buddhist Scripture was settled; and the Magadhi dialect, called Páli, became the language of tradition and worship in many distant lands-Ceylon, Burma, Siam. The slaughter of animals-whether for human food or sacrifice to the gods-was prohibited, though not apparently made penal; the edicts notice also the establishment of a kind of censorship of morals; they proclaim equality of rank among all believers; they earnestly invite to the practice of benevolence and

virtue.

Many autocrats have traced their own moral portraits, some intending to do so, others not. We know, from similar memorials left in Persia and Assyria, what was the notion of themselves affected by despots in those countries; conquest, slaughter, captivity, and persecution continue down to recent times the pride and the delight of despots. But Asoka is the only oriental monarch who has sought to extend an empire of suasion, and to subdue men's minds to useful and holy life. In so doing, this mighty, if simple-hearted, emperor has shown his own nature, and the ideal of his age; nor can it be denied that the result is as pleasing as unexpected. So long as the system and influence of Asoka lasted there was peace, there was some degree of happiness for a large portion of the human race.

SECTION 3.-What was the exact political character of Asoka's power we cannot learn; possibly, in so wide a region, the various states and tribes continued to exercise a good deal