period of the Second Synod, the Dharma of Buddha had been preached throughout Malwa, from Chetiya (or Bhilsa)* to Avanti (or Ujain), and to the undefined Patheya, or "Western" country. Of the farther progress of the Buddhist religion, nothing is certainly known until Alexander's invasion; at which time Bráhmans and Srámanas would appear to have been held in about equal honour by the princes of the land.

• This identification of Chetiya or Chetiyagiri with the modern Bhilsa is proved by parallel passages in Mahánámo and Buddhaghoso, in which the former gives Chetiya and Chetiyagiri, where the latter gives Wessanagara, which is no doubt the old ruined city of Besnagar, two miles to the northward of Bhilsa.

CHAPTER VIII.

PROGRESS OF BUDDHISM.

1. Chandra Gupta, the founder of the Mauryan dynasty of Magadha, was the illegitimate son of the last Nanda by the beautiful, but low caste, Murá, from whom he obtained the name of Maurya. In the Mudra Rakshasa, a Sanskrit drama detailing his elevation, Chandra Gupta is frequently named Vrishala, a term said to be equivalent to Sudra; and as Nanda himself was the son of a Sudra woman, there can be little doubt that the celebrated Maurya family were of Sudra extraction. In the early part of his career, Chandra Gupta led a wandering life in the Panjáb;* and was, most probably, engaged with his fellow-countrymen in opposing Alexander. His chief adviser, the Bráhman Chánakya, was a native of Takshasila, or Taxila, the capital of the Western Panjáb; and it was in that country that Chandra Gupta first established himself by the complete expulsion of the Greek troops left by Alexander.†

• See Turnour, Introduction to the Mahawanso, p. xli., quoting the Tika or Commentary.

+ Justin. xv. 4.—" Auctor libertatis Sandrocottus fuerat."

2. It would appear that the Greek colonists in the Panjab had first been placed under, Philip, while the civil administration of the country remained in the hands of its native princes, Taxiles and Porus. After wards, on the murder of Philip by the mercenary soldiers, Alexander* directed Eudemos and Taxiles to govern the country until he should send another deputy. It is probable, however, that they continued to retain the charge; for after Alexander's death in B. C. 323, Eudemos contrived to make himself master of the country by the treacherous assassination of king Porus. Some few years later, in B. C. 317, he marched to the assistance of Eumenes, with 3,000 infantry and 5,000 cavalry, and no less than 120 elephants. With this force he performed good service at the battle of Gabiene. But his continued absence gave the Indians an opportunity not to be neglected; and their liberty was fully asserted by the expulsion of the Greek troops and the slaughter of their chiefs. Chandra Gupta was the leader of this national movement, which ended in his own elevation to the sovereignty of the Panjáb. Justin attributes his success to the assistance of banditti ; § but in this I think he has been misled by a very natural mistake; for the Arattas, who were the

Arrian, Anabasis, vi. 27.

+ Diodorus, xix. 5. Justin. xv. 4.-" Præfectos ejus occiderat;" again, "Molienti deinde bellum adversus præfectos Alexandri."

Justin. xv. 4.-" Contractis latronibus Indos ad novitatem regni solicitavit."

dominant people of the Eastern Panjáb, are never mentioned in the Mahábhárata without being called robbers. They were the republican defenders of Sangala, or Sákala, a fact which points to their Sanskrit name of Aráshtra, or "kingless." But though their power was then confined to the Eastern Panjab, the people themselves had once spread over the whole country. They were known by the several names of Báhika, Járttika, and Takka; of which the last would appear to have been their true appellation; for their old capital of Taxila, or Takka-sila, was known to the Greeks of Alexander; and the people themselves still exist in considerable numbers in the Panjab hills. The ancient extent of their power is proved by the present prevalence of their alphabetical characters, which, under the name of Tákri, or Tákni, are now used by all the Hindus of Kashmir and the northern mountains, from Simla and Subathu to Kábul and Bámiyan. On these grounds I venture to identify the banditti of Justin with the Tákkas, or original inhabitants of the Panjab, and to assign to them the honour of delivering their native land from the thraldom of a foreign yoke.

Lassen, Pentapot. Indica.-" Aratti profecto latrones," and "Bahici latrones." The Sanskrit name is Arashtra, the "kingless," which is preserved in the Adraista of Arrian, who places them on the Rávi.

+ "Ubi fluvii illi quini

ibi sedes sunt Arattorum."

-Lassen, Pentapot Indica, from the Mahábhárat.

3. This event occurred most probably about 316 B. C., or shortly after the march of Eudemos to the assistance of Eumenes. It was followed immediately by the conquest of Gangetic India;* and in 315 B. C., the rule of Chandra Gupta was acknowledged over the whole northern peninsula, from the Indus to the mouths of the Ganges. The authorities differ as to the length of Chandra Gupta's reign, which some make thirty-four years, and others only twenty-four. This difference may, perhaps, have originated in two distinct reckonings of the date of his accession; the one party counting from the death of Nanda Mahapadma, in B. c. 325; and the other party from the conquest of India, in B. C. 315. Some assumption of this kind is clearly necessary to reconcile the different authorities; unless, indeed, we take the only alternative of adopting the one and of rejecting the other.

4. At this period the capital of India was Pataliputra or Palibothra, which was situated on the Ganges, at the junction of the Erranaboas or Aläos River. The former name has already been identified with the Sanskrit Hiranyabúhu, an epithet

* Justin. xv. 4.-" Indiam possidebat."

The Mahawanso gives thirty-four years, the Dipawanso and the Vayu Purána give only twenty-four years.

‡ Arrian, Indica, x., gives the Erranaboas; and Strabo, xv., uses the following words,-και του αλλου ποταμου, for which I propose to read και του Αλάου ποταμου. The change is very slight from A to A. The Greek text has rou and not rov.