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* * * * * * # " A similar process would appear to have taken place in India, as I will presently attempt to shew by a separate examination of the alphabetical letters of Asoka's age with the pictures of various objects from which I believe them to have been directly descended.* * My own conclusion is that the Indian alphabet is of purely Indian origin, just as much as the Egyptian hieroglyphics were the purely local invention of the people of Egypt * * I admit that several of the letters have almost exactly the same forms as those which are found amongst the Egyptian hiero- Digitized 32 BUDDHIST PERIOD. [BOOK IV. glyphics for the same things, but their values are quite different, as they form different syllables in the two languages. Thus a pair of legs separated as in walking was the Egyptian symbol for walking or motion, and the same form, like the two sides of a pair of compasses, is the Indian letter g % which as ga * is the commonest of all the Sanscrit roots for walking or motion of any kind. But the value of the Egyptian symbol is s ; and I contend that if the symbol had been borrowed by the Indians, it would have retained its original value. This, indeed, is the very thing that happened with the Accadian cuneiform symbols when they were adopted by the Assyrians/'f General Cunningham conjectures that the Indo-Pdli letter Kh is derived from the Indian hoe or mattock (K/utn— to dig) ; that Y is derived from barley ( Yava) or from a member of the human frame ; that D is from the tooth (Danta\ Dk from the bow (D/ianus), P is from the hand {P&ni), M is from the mouth (Mukkd), V is from the lute ( Vind), N is from the nose (Ndsa\ R is from a rope (Rajju), H is from the hand {Hasta\ L is from the plough (Langa) or from a member of the human frame, 5 is from the ear (Sravand), and so on. • The DevanSgari g has still a resemblance with its Indo-Pali ancestor, t Cunningham's Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum. Vol I. 1877, pp. 52 & 53. igitized by Google CHAP. II.] LANGUAGE AND ALPHABET. 33 " In this brief examination of the letters of the old Indian alphabet, I have compared their forms at the time of Asoka, or 250 B. C, with the pictures of various objects and of the different members of the human frame; and the result of my examination is the convic- tion that many of the characters still preserved, even in their simpler alphabetical forms, very strong and marked traces of their pictorial origin. My comparison of the symbols with the Egyptian hieroglyphics shows that many of them are almost identical representations of the same objects. But as the Indian symbols have totally different values from those of Egypt, it seems almost certain that the Indians must have worked out their system quite independently, although they follow- ed the same process. They did not, therefore, borrow their alphabet from the Egyptians. • • • " Now, if the Indians did not borrow their alphabet from the Egyptians, it must have been the local inven- tion of the people themselves, for the simple reason that there was no other people from whom they could have obtained it Their nearest neighbours were the peoples of Ariana and Persia, of whom the former used a Semetic character of Phoenician origin, reading from right to left, and the latter a cuneiform character formed of separate detached strokes, which has nothing whatever in com- mon with the compact forms of the Indian alphabet."* • Corpus Inscriptionum Itulicarum. Vol. I, pp. 60 & 61. R. C. D., A. L — HI. 3 Digitized 34 BUDDHIST PERIOD. [BOOK IV. General Cunningham further points out that the conventional signs for the five planets, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn may be formed by merely adding a star to the radical letter of each of the five classes of the alphabetical letters of Asoka, while the sun and moon are the actual radical letters of the two other classes of the Indian alphabet without any change or alteration. It is difficult to believe " that this can be an accidental coincidence." Digitized by Google CHAPTER III. THE KINGS OF MAGADHA. ■ I KNOW the Rig Veda, Sir, " says Narada in the Chhindogya Upanishad ( VII, 1,2), " the Yajur Veda, the Sama Veda, as the fourth the Atharvana, as the fifth the Itih&sa-Purana, &c." This and numerous similar passages in the literature of the Epic Period would lead to the conclusion that some kinds of annals of kings and dynasties existed, even in that ancient period, which were known as Itihasa-Puranas. If such annals existed, beyond what we find in the Brah- manas themselves, they have long since been lost. Probably such annals were preserved in the traditions of the people, and were altered and re-cast, and mixed up with legends from century to century, and from age to age, until after about two thousand years, they finally assumed the shape in which we find them now, —the modern Puranas, For it has been ascertained that the Puranas which exist now were composed in the Paurinik Period, and have since been altered and con- siderably enlarged during many centuries after the Mahommedan conquest of India. When these Puranas were first discovered by Sir William Jones and other European scholars, great hopes Digitized 36 BUDDHIST PERIOD. [BOOK IT. were entertained that they would throw light on the ancient history of India. A host of eminent scholars turned their attention to this new field of inquiry, and Dr. H. H. Wilson gave to English readers a translation of the Vishnu-Purdna " in the hope of supplying some of the necessary means to a satisfactory elucidation of an important chapter in the history of the human race."* A close examination of the Pur&nas, however, has not fulfilled the hopes entertained. For the ages anterior to the Rationalistic Period, no consistent chronology could be constructed from the mass of legends and the lists of kings and dynasties which the Puranas furnished. The races of the Sun and the Moon, which are said to have ruled in Oude and in the Doab respectively, claim according to the Puranas an antiquity which modern scholars refuse to acknowledge. Nor is there any consistency between these two lines of kings. Thus, though the founders of the two races are said to have been contemporaneous, being brother and sister, 93 kings of the solar line, and only 45 of the lunar line are said to have reigned .before the Kuru Panchala war. And even if we reject the theory of the contemporaneous commencement of the two lines, then, on an average of 20 years for each reign, the solar line must have begun its rule in Oude i860 years * Preface to the Vishnu Purana. Digitized by Google CHAP. III.] THE KINGS OF MAGADHA. 37 before the Kuru Panchlla war, f>., about 3000 B.C., and the lunar line began in the Doab 900 years before the war, U. y about 2000 B.C. We require some better evidence than that of the modern Pur&nas before we can accept these conclusions. And besides, the Kuru —Panchila war itself is placed at the commencement of the Kali Yuga, i. about 3100 B. C, and according to this calculation the Oude and the Doab dynasties must have commenced to reign about 5000 and 4000 B. C respectively ! Nor are these the only difficulties. The names of the kings given shew at a glance the uselessness of the lists for the purposes of history. Ikshviku is the first king of the solar line, and Pururavas of the lunar line. The legend of Pururavas and Urvasi which in the Rig Veda is a solar myth, is given here as a historical episode, The mythical hero Rdma, the conqueror of Ceylon, figures in the solar line ; and the mythical five Pandavas and Krishna figure in the lunar line. Fourth in descent from Pururavas is Gritsamada, whom we know to be a Vedic Rishi. His son is said to be Saunaka who, we know, was a great teacher of the Epic Period. Saunaka's second cousin once removed is said to be Dirghatamas, who is another Rishi of the Rig Veda. And Dirghatamas is said to have be- gotten on the wife of Bali (a prince, 1 6th in descent from Pururavas) five sons, named Anga, Vanga, Kalinga, ' Sumbha, and Pundra, — which names are names of five Digitized by Google 38 BUDDHIST PERIOD. [BOOK. IV. * countries, East Behar, East Bengal, Orissa, Tipperah, and North Bengal ! These regions, it is needless to say, were unknown to Aryans in the time of Dirghatamas or the Rig Veda. It is unnecessary to multiply instances. The lists seem like a regular permutation and combination of names, Vedic and historic, legendary and territorial. Confused recollections of ancient and historic kings, of holy and famous Rishis, of events partly historic and partly legendary, and of the supposed founders of kingdoms, were handed down for thousands of years, no doubt with very considerable alterations and addi- tions, and have been woven together by writers of a comparatively modern period into lists which are sup- posed to be lists of kings in the order of their reigns. Historians and scholars have, during the last hundred years, failed to derive any real help towards the con- struction of an authentic history of India from these lists of solar and lunar kings. The annals of India preserved in the PurAnas may be compared with the chronicles of the world's history written and copied from century to century by Euro- pean monks in the Middle Ages. Each monk began with the creation of the world, as each Purana begins with Ikshviku and Pururavas ; and like the writers of the Purdnas, Christian monks wove together legends, miracles, and episodes from Jewish history, and narrated the discovery of Britain by the Trojans, Digitized by Google CHAP. III.] THE KINGS OF MAGADHA. 39 and the fables about Arthur and Roland.