DS
IC-NRLF
CJL
-- INDIA --
AS KNOWN TO THE
ANCIENT WORLD
BY
GAURANGANATH BANERJEE
HUMPHREY MILFORD
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON BOMBAY MADRAS CALCUTTA
1921
INDIA AS KNOWN
TO THE ANCIENT WORLD
OR
INDIA'S INTERCOURSE IN ANCIENT TIMES WITH
HER NEIGHBOURS, EGYPT, WESTERN ASIA,
GREECE, ROME, CENTRAL ASIA, CHINA,
FURTHER INDIA AND INDONESIA
BY
DR. 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 MILFORD
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON BOMBAY MADRAS CALCUTTA
1921
CALCUTTA
Printed by D. N. Bancrjee, Bancrjce Press-
2, Maharaiii .^amanioye Road
THESE PAGES
ARE DEDICATED TO
MY MOTHER
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE
WESTERN ASIA . . . . . . 1
EGYPT . . . . . . . . 10
GEEECE AND ROME . . . . . . 15
CENTRAL ASIA . . . . . . . . 29
CHINA . . . . . - . 39
FURTHER INDIA . . . . . . . * 48
INDONESIA . . . . . . , * 54
JAVA .. .. .. .. .,64
SUMATRA . . . . . . * . 62
BALI .. .. .. ..70
BORNEO . . . . . . . , 71
CONCLUSION . . . . . . . 72
PREFACE
The object of this little book is to offer a survey of the
remarkable civilisation which arose in ancient India
thousands of years ago and which influenced not only
the manners, religion and customs of the people of the
Malaya Archipelago and Indo-China, but gave also a
thin veneer of culture to the nomads of Central Asiatic
steppes, through her commercial enterprise and religious
propaganda.
Now, civilisation is the outcome of reciprocal action and
reaction : nations both giving and taking. Such a result
is but to be expected when States come into contact with
one another, when they acquire knowledge and intimacy
of one another's institutions and are thus able to recognise
ERRATA
Insert at the foot of pp. 2 and 3, Robert son-'
Disquisition.
Page 1 1. 11 for Gen. XXXVIII read Gen. XXXVII
Pace 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 unconscious
adoption of customs and modes of thought.
Throughout the earliest career of man in Central and
Southern Asia, it is to India that we must turn as the
dominant power by the sheer weight of its superior
civilisation. To us, therefore who are the children of
ancient India, it is of vital interest to lift the curtain and
CONTENTS
PREFACE
WESTERN ASIA . .
EGYPT
GEEECE AND ROME
CENTRAL ASIA
CHINA
FURTHER INDIA . .
INDONESIA
JAVA
PAGE
1
. 10
. 15
. 29
. 39
48
. 54
. 64
62
PREFACE
The object of this little book is to offer a survey of the
remarkable civilisation which arose in ancient India
thousands of years ago and which influenced not only
the manners, religion and customs of the people of the
Malaya Archipelago and Indo-China, but gave also a
thin veneer of culture to the nomads of Central Asiatic
steppes, through her commercial enterprise and religious
propaganda.
Now, civilisation is the outcome of reciprocal action and
reaction : nations both giving and taking. Such a result
is but to be expected when States come into contact with
one another, when they acquire knowledge and intimacy
of one another's institutions and are thus able to recognise
and appreciate the merits of foreign organisations and
perceive the defects of their own. In India, such recip-
rocal action and reaction we notice from the earliest
times.
True it is that India has been periodically overrun by
invaders both European and Asiatic ; nevertheless the
transmission and assimilation of culture continues without
a break. A conquering nation may carry its own civiliza-
tion with it to the conquered. Culture is often forced
upon 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 unconscious
adoption of customs and modes of thought.
Throughout the earliest career of man in Central and
Southern Asia, it is to India that we must turn as the
dominant power by the sheer weight of its superior
civilisation. To us, therefore who are the children of
ancient India, it is of vital interest to lift the curtain and
11
peer into the ages which bequeathed so precious a legacy
to our forefathers. The moment seems opportune for
grouping together the comparatively small amount of
material at our disposal, with a view to presenting a
general picture of India's intercourse with her neighbours
at the dawn of history.
In this endeavour I have utilised the results of the
researches of many savants and have added to them those
of my own ; for the field of investigation is too large to be
cultivated in its entirety by any single investigator.
It has been my aim throughout to present only such
results as may safely be regarded as certain and definite,
and to abstain from those views which are fanciful or
conjectural. I have moreover tried to tell the story
without 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 in
London under the title "The World's History"), I am
indebted, especially for India's relations with Indo-China
and Malaya Peninsula. I also gratefully acknowledge
my obligation to Dr. G. Hirth's invaluable book The
Ancient History of China and to Sir S. Raffles' History of
Java. To the colossal labours of Sir Gaston Maspero and
Dr. Rappaport I have been indebted especially as regards
Ancient Egyptian trade with India. I also owe a debt to
Mr. 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 very
different manner from that adopted by my predecessors,
I do so thanking them, for it is they who have opened up
the roads which lead to the investigation of facts."
The University of Calcutta,
GAURANGAXATH BANERJEE
February, 1921
" The history of trade is the history of the international
commerce and of geography, and both combined form the
history of the civilisation of our race".
O. Peschel.
WESTERN ASIA
The original home allotted to man by his Creator
was 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 were
anciently cultivated, as well as of Arts which were
anciently exercised in India, we may conclude it to be
one of the first countries in which men made any
considerable progress in their early career. The
wisdom of the "East" was celebrated in I. Kings and
its productions were in request among the distant
nations of antiquity (Gen. XXXVIII, 25). The
intercourse between different countries was carried
on at first entirely by land. Trade was carried on
by means of caravans, particularly by nations who
inhabited in the coast of the Arabian Sea, from the
earliest period to which historical information reaches
us. But notwithstanding every improvement that
could 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 with
stretches of burning sand ; sunken reefs and coral
rocks near the shore ; marauding bands of Bedouins
infesting the caravan-routes ; trade- jealousy and
* 'preferential tariffs" of the myrmidons of custom-
2 WESTERN ASIA
houses prevented or at least threw obstacles in the
way of this mode of conducting commerce. So a
method of communication more easy and expedi-
tious was sought and the ingenuity of man gradually
discovered that the rivers, the arms of the sea, and
even the ocean itself were destined to open and
facilitate intercourse with the various regions of the
then known world. "Navigation and shipbuilding,'/
observes Prof. Seignobos, "are arts so nice and com-
plicated that they require the talents as well as the
experience of many successive ages to bring them
to any degree of perfection." From the raft or
canoe, which first served to carry a savage over the
rivulets which obstructed him in the chase, to the cons-
truction of a vessel capable of conveying a numerous
crew or a considerable cargo of goods to a distant
coast, is an immense stride. Many efforts would be
made, many experiments would be tried and much
labour as well as ingenuity would be employed before
this arduous and important undertaking could be
accomplished.
Even after some improvement was made in the
art of shipbuilding, the intercourse of the nations
with 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 on
the Mediterranean Sea and on the Persian Gulf. From
an attentive inspection of the position of these two
great inland seas, these accounts appear to be highly
probable. These seas lay open the continents of
Europe, Asia and Africa, and washing the shores
of the most fertile and the most early civilised
countries seemed to have been destined by Nature
WESTERN ASIA 3
to facilitate their communication with one another.
We find accordingly, that the first voyages of the
Egyptians and the Phoenicians, the most ancient
navigators mentioned in history, were made in
the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. Their trade
was not however long confined to the countries
bordering upon these ; by acquiring early possession
of the ports on the Arabian Sea, they extended
the sphere of their commerce and are repre-
sented to have opened a communication by sea
with India. Dr. Day asserts in his "History of
Commerce," that "the beginnings of these sea-
voyages are lost in the obscurity of the past. We
know that they were highly developed by 1500 B. C..
when Sidon was the leading city and that they did
not cease to extend when the primacy of the Phoeni-
cian cities passed to Tyre. The Phoenicians taught
the art of navigation to the ancient world ; their
ships were long the accepted models of construction
and the Greeks learned from them to direct their
course at night by the North or, as the Greeks called
it, the Phoenician Star."
But the question of the navigation on the Persian
Gulf is still entirely shrouded in mist, as well as that
of the Alpha and Omega of all early communications
between the two countries India and the land of
Sumer and Akkad. It is inconceivable that the
earliest civilisation of Chaldaea had not engaged in
navigation on the "Sea of the East." At the period,
when our knowledge begins however, we see this
civilisation already withdrawing more northward,
into the interior of the country. The most ancient
inscriptions do not mention anything of such matters ;
4 WESTERN ASIA
and thus we must probably for a long time be content
to leave the question unsolved. But incidentally we
may notice that the great prosperity of the state
called Elam and its obstinate and sturdy resistance
first to Chaldsea, and then to the mighty Assyrian
Empire may be partly explained by the wealth
she acquired in trade with the countries on its
eastern forntier ; for we know that Elam had a fleet
manned with Phoenician crews in the great bay at
the embouchure of the two streams, Tigris and
Euphrates. Thus it is sufficient to make us recognise
that Elam, in consequence of its position and civili-
sation, really was the connecting link between the
civilised countries of Nearer and Farther Asia and the
predecessor of the eastern half of the later Persian
Empire. So if the trade with India and Western
Asia is one of the most important factors in the
history of the world, Elam must also in the days
of its splendour have interfered, if unable to
assist, in these trade-relations and always have
had an important word in the matter. And if in the
Persian time, under the full light of history, the
Aramaic script wandered to India and farther east-
ward, such an event may equally well have happened
in the earlier millennia. This fact is expressed less
clearly, but still distinctly enough, in the recurrence
of the Babylonian legend of the Flood among the
Indians, to which many other points in common will
some day be added (vide Ragozin, Vedic India).
Now, the principal sources of our knowledge,
such as it is, of early Indian trade, are derived from
scattered hints in the ancient authors of India, begin-
ning with the Indian Scriptures and from several
WESTERN ASIA 5
passages 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 r
which could not but be expected in a district so>
intersected by streams as that of the Indus ; even
voyages on the open sea are hinted at and merchants
are mentioned, though seldom. Prof. Dr. Kaegi in his
Introduction to the "Rig Veda" says that there was
navigation in the streams of the Punjab and on the
Ocean (cf. the Voyage of Prince Bhujya) and trade
only existed in barter. And it is narrated there,
that the two Aswins (who represent morning and
evening twilight) brought back Prince Bhujya, who
sailed in a hundred-oared ship ('Sataritram nawam 5 )
and went to sea and was nearly drowned, "in vessels
of 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 brethern
Sit shining on the sails. "
But the first trade between the West and India
of which we have any definite knowledge was that
carried on by the Phoenician and Hebrew mariners
from Ezion-Geber on the Red Sea ; and an account
we have of this trade implies, on the part of the Phoeni-
cians, a previous acquaintance with the route. The
Phoenicians first made their appearance on the Ery-
thraean or the Red Sea, by which we must understand
the whole Indian Ocean between Africa and the Malaya
Peninsula ; and curiously the Puranas thus represent
For internal evidence, vide my article on " Peregrinations of the
Ajicient Hindus " in " Hindustan Review" May, 1918.
6 WESTERN ASIA
it, when they describe the waters of the Arunodadhi,
as reddened by the reflection of the solar rays from
the southern side of the Mount Sumeru, which abounds
with red rubies. Of the fact that a trade existed
between Western Asia and Babylonia on the one hand
and Hindusthan on the other, there cannot be any
doubt. M. D'Anville suggests three routes for this
intercourse with the Western World. The first
climbs up the precipitous and zigzag passes of the
Zagros Range, which the Greeks called the "Ladders",
into the treeless regions of Persia. This route was
barred for centuries by the inveterate hostility of the
mountaineers 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 Sea
and Oxus and descends into India by the passes of
the Hindukush. Articles of commerce doubtless
passed along this way from very early times ; but the
trade was of little importance, fitful, intermittent and
passed through many intermediate hands, until the
Parthian domination obliged more merchants to take
this route.
Lastly, there is the Sea ; and this alone affords
a direct and constant intercourse.
Now the question of main importance is at what
period did regular maritime intercourse first arise
between India and Western Asia ? From the history
of the Chinese coinage, it is quite certain that an
active sea-borne commerce sprang about 700 B. C.
between Babylon and Farther East and that India
had an active share in it. From the time of Darius
Hystaspes (c. 500 B.C.) the Babylonians lost their
WESTERN ASIA 7
monopoly in it and it passed largely into the hands of
the Arabs, whom the Greeks found in possession.
Ample evidence is forthcoming that maritime inter-
course existed between India and Babylon in the
seventh century B. C.
Firstly: Shalmaneser IV of Assyria (727-722 B. C.)
received presents from Bactria and India, specially
Bactrian camels and Indian elephants. (Dr. Winckler)
Secondly : Mr. H. Rassam found a beam of Indian
cedar in the palace of Nebuchadrezzar III of the
Nee-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 first
peacock by sea to Babylon. The Jataka itself may
go back to 400 B. C., but the folk-tales on which it is
founded must be much older. Prof. Minayeff saw
in the Baveru Jataka the oldest trace in India of
Phcenicio-Babylonian intercourse.
Fourthly : Certain Indian commodities were im-
ported into Babylon even in the days of Solomon
c. 900 B. C. and they were known to the Greeks and
others under their Indian names. Rice, for instance,
had always been a principal article of export from
India (vide the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea) and it
was a common article of food in the time of Sophocles
(Gk. Oryza is identical w T ith the Tamil, arisi or rice).
Again Aristophanes repeatedly mentions peacock and
assumes that it was well-known to his audience as the
common-fowl with which he contrasts it. Peacocks,
rice and Indian sandal- woods were known in Palestine
under their Tamil names in the days of Hebrew
chroniclers of Kings and Genesis.
8 WESTERN ASIA
Fifthly : Baudhayana's condemnation of the
Northern Aryans who took part in the sea-trade,
proves that they were not the chief agents, though
they had a considerable share in it.*
These evidences then warrant us in the belief that
maritime 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, although
the Aryans also had a share in it ; and as Indian
traders settled afterwards in Arabia (vide Lassen r
Ind. Alter, ii, p. 580) and on the east coast of Africa,
and as we find them settling at this very time on the
coast of China, we cannot doubt that they had their
settlements inBabylon also. "Crowds of strangers lived
in Babylon," says Berossus (c. 350 B. C.). But the 7th
and the 6th centuries are the culminating period of
Babylonian greatness. Babylon which had been des-
troyed by Sennacherib, and rebuilt by Esarhaddon
and later on beautified by Nebuchadrezzar III Baby-
lon, which owed her importance and her fame to the
sanctity of her temples now appears before us all of a
sudden, as the greatest commercial entrepot of the
world. There was no limit to her resources and to her
power. She arose and utterly overthrew her ancient
rival and oppressor Nineveh. With Nebuchadrezzar
she became the wonder of the world. No other city
could rival her magnificence. Splendid in her battle-
ments and streets, her temples and palaces and gardens,
she glowed with resplendent colour under the azure
sky, the acknowledged mistress of the nations, regally
enthroned among the palm-groves on either bank of
the broad swift-flowing flood of the Euphrates. The
* See Mr. J. Kennedy's learned article in J. R. A. S., 1898.
WESTERN ASIA 9
merchants of all countries made her their resort ;
the camels of Yemen and the mules of Media jostled
each other in her streets. The secret of her greatness
lay in her monopoly of the treasures of the East, in
the shouting of the Chaldaeans in their ships and in
the swarthy Orientals who frequented her bazaars.
A commerce, frequent and direct, between the
Semites of Mesopotamia and the Indians could
be carried on only by the way of the sea. The
overland routes were not impracticable, in fact the
desert steppes of Asia formed the mercantile ocean
of 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 Hindukush
and wound its perilous way along the banks of the
Oxus. But the commerce was from hand to hand,
and from tribe to tribe, fitful, rare and uncertain and
never possessed any importance. Similarly, the
normal trade-route from the Persian Gulf to India
could never have been along the inhospitable deserts
of Gedrosia. Doubtless then, more than one adven-
turous vessel reached India by hugging the shore
prior to the seventh century B.C., although the records
are lost and commercial results therefrom were negli-
gible. But the exploring expeditions dispatched by
Darius in 512 B. C. from the mouth of the Indus
under Skylax of Karyanda and two centuries later
by Alexander the Great, under Nearchos, the Admiral
of the Macedonian Fleet, show the difficulties and
dangers of this route, the time it occupied and the
ignorance of the pilots. The clear-headed author
of the Periplus, it is true, says that small ships made
10 EGYPT
formerly voyages to India, coasting along the shore
until Hippalus first ventured to cross the ocean by
observing the monsoon. The monsoon was known
however from the earliest times to all who sailed
along the Arabian and African coast. Down to the
very end of the Middle Ages, the voyage from Ormuzd
to India was rarely attempted except at the com-
mencement of the middle of the monsoon.
EGYPT
The trade of the ancient Egyptians had given
them very little knowledge of geography. Indeed
the whole trade of the Egyptians was carried on
by buying goods from their nearest neighbours
on one side and selling them to those on the
other side of them. Long voyages were unknown ;
and though the trading- wealth of Egypt had mainly
arisen from carrying the merchandise of India and
Arabia Felix from the ports on the Red Sea to the
ports on the Mediterranean, the Egyptians seem to
have gained no knowledge of the countries from
which these goods came. They bought them of the
Arab traders who came to Cosseir and the Troglodytic
Berenice from the opposite coast ; the Arabs had
probably bought them from the caravans that
had carried them across the desert from the
Persian Gulf; because these land journeys across
the desert were for the Arabs both easier and
cheaper than a coasting voyage. On the contrary,
India seems to have been known to the Greeks
prior to Alexander, as a country which by sea was
to be reached by way of the Euphrates and the
EGYPT 11
Persian Gulf ; and though Skylax had dropped down
the river Indus, coasted Arabia and then reached
the Red Sea, this voyage was either forgotten or
disbelieved, and in the time of the Ptolemies it seems
probable that nobody thought that India could be
reached by sea from Egypt. Arrian indeed thought
that the difficulty of carrying water in their small
ships with large crews of rowers, was alone great
enough 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 had
been limited to circumnavigating Africa; the voyage of
Alexander the Great had been from the Indus to the
Persian Gulf : hence it was that the court of Euergetes
was startled by the strange news that the Arabian
guards on the coast of the Red Sea, had found a man
in a boat by himself, who could not speak Koptic,
and whom they afterwards discovered to be an Indian
who had sailed straight from India and had lost his
ship-mates (c. 200 B.C.). He was willing to show any
one the route by which he had sailed ; and Eudoxus of
Cyzicus in Asia Minor came to Alexandria to persuade
Euergetes to give him, the command of a vessel for
this voyage of discovery. A vessel was given him ;
and though he was but badly fitted out, he reached
a country, which he called India, by sea and brought
back a cargo of spices and precious stones. He wrote
an account of the coasts which he visited and it was
made use of by Pliny. In the course of these attempts at
maritime discovery and searchings for a cheaper means
of obtaining the Indian products, the Greek sailors
of Euergetes made a settlement in the island Dio-
scorides (now called Socotra) in the Indian Ocean
12 EGYPT
and there met the trading vessels from India and
Ceylon. This little island continued a Greek colony
for upwards of seven centuries and Greek was the
only language spoken there, till it fell under the
Arabs, in the twilight of history, when all European
possessions in Africa were overthrown. But the
art of navigation was so far unknown that little
use was made of this voyage of Eudoxus ; the goods
of India, which were all costly and of small weight,
were, under the Ptolemies, still for the most part
carried across the desert on camels' backs.
The maritime intercourse of Egypt with India in
the epoch which immediately preceded the Roman
rule, was not great and was carried on in the main
by the Arabians. It was only through the Romans
that Egypt obtained the great maritime traffic to the
East. "Not 20 Egyptian vessels in the year,"
says a contemporary of Augustus, "ventured forth
under the Ptolemies from the Arabian Gulf : now
120 merchantmen annually sail to India from the
port of Myos Hormos alone." Alexandria, under
the Romans became the great entrepot of the trading
world, not only having its own great trade in grain,
but being the port through which the trade of India
and Arabia passed to Europe, and at which the
Syrian vessels touched on their way to Italy. The
harbour was crowded with masts and strange prows
and uncouth sails and the quays always were busy with
loading and unloading ; while in the streets might
be seen men of all languages and all dresses, copper-
coloured Egyptians, swarthy Jews, lively, bustling
Greeks and haughty Italians, with Asiatics from neigh-
bouring coasts of Syria and Cilicia and even dark Ethio-
EGYPT 13
pians, painted Arabs, Bactrians, Scythians, Persians,
and Indians, all gay in their national costumes.
Alexandria was a spot in which Europe met Asia
and each wondered at the strangeness of the other.
It was not till the reign of Claudius (A. D. 41)
that the route through Egypt to India became really
known to the Europeans. The historian Pliny, who
died in 79 A. D., has left us a contemporary account
of these early voyages. "It will not be amiss," says
Pliny, in his Natural History, "to set forth the whole
of the route from Egypt, which has been stated to
us of late, upon information on which reliance may
be placed and is here published for the first time.
The subject is one w r ell worthy of our notice, seeing
that in no year does India drain our Empire of less
than 550 millions of sesterces* giving back her own
wares in exchange, which are sold among us at fully
one hundred times their cost price
To those who are bound for India, Ocelis is the best
place for embarkation. If the wind called Hippalus
happens to be blowing, it is possible to arrive in
40 days, at the nearest mart in India called Muziris. f
This however is not a desirable place for dis-
embarkation, on account of the pirates which
frequent its vicinity ; nor in fact is it very rich in
articles of merchandise. Besides the roadstead for
shipping is at a considerable distance from the shore,
and the cargoes have to be conveyed in boats, either
for loading or for discharging." "At the moment I
am writing these pages," continues Pliny, "the name
of the king of the place is Caelobotras. Another
About 80 lakhs of rupees,
t Modern Maugalore.
14 EGYPT
port and a much more convenient one, is that which
lies in the territory of the people called Nelcyndi,
Barace by name. Here king Pandion used to reign,
dwelling at a considerable distance from the mart
in the interior, at a city known as Modeira. Travel-
lers set sail from India on their return to Egypt, at
the beginning of the Egyptian month Tybus, which
is our December ; if they do this, they can go and
return in the same year."
The places on the Indian coast, which the Egyptian
merchant vessels then reached, are verified from
the coins found there. A hoard of Roman gold
coins has been dug up quite recently near Calicut,
under the roots of a banyan tree. It had been buried
by an Alexandrian merchant on his arrival from a
voyage and left safe under the cover of the sacred
tree to await his return from a second journey. But
he died before his return and his secret died with
him. The products of the Indian trade were chiefly
silk, diamonds and other precious stones, ginger,
spices and ivory.
To Pliny's survey we must add the valuable
geographical knowledge given by the author of the
Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, which has come
down to us in an interesting document, wherein he
mentions the several sea-ports and their distances,
with the tribes and cities near the coast. The trade
of Egypt to India and Arabia was then most valuable
and carried on with great activity ; but as the
merchandise in each case was carried only for short
distances from city to city, the merchants could gain
but little knowledge of where it came from or of
where it was going. Even under Justinian part
GREECE AND ROME 15
of the Egyptian trade to the East was carried on
through the islands of Ceylon and Socotra ; but it
was chiefly in the hands of the uneducated Arabs,
who were little able to communicate to the world
much knowledge of the countries from which they
brought their highly-valued goods. At Ceylon they
met with traders from beyond the Ganges and China,
from whom they bought the silk which the Europeans
had formerly thought a product of Arabia.
That the Roman legions failed to make their
way to India across the mountainous frontiers of
Western Iran, following in the footsteps of Alexander,
is a fact of vast historical importance. The civili-
sation of the Western world, which had once been
borne by Alexander as far as the Indus, was destined
for more than a thousand years to be cut off from
all contact with the world of the East ; for the small
flame of Greek culture that shed its feeble rays over
Bactria counted for little and was soon extinguished.
It is true that Greek art lived on in India for many
years longer ; but it finally became absorbed and lost
all resemblance to its former self in the hands of the
Indians (vide my book "Hellenism in Ancient India").
It is also true that the teachings of Indian sages were
echoed in the Western world of esoteric sects and
schools of Philosophy, but the mutual labour of
civilisation was completely broken off for the time.
GREECE AND ROME
As was to be expected, the earliest voyages and
travels of the ancient Greeks, which have come down
to us are enshrined in poetry and surrounded with a
16 GREECE AND ROME
certain halo of fiction, though accepted as genuine
history by the uncritical ancients. The first of the
legends of Greece and anterior to Homer is the
voyage of the Argonauts. It was developed, enlarged
and localised by succeeding chroniclers. From
Mimnermus, the oldest authority, we learn no further
than that ^Eites lived on the banks of the ocean-
stream in the farthest East, and Homer alludes to
the voyage, as even in his time world-famous. But
in this critical age, the only thing that can be conceded
is that at a very remote period, some adventurous
Greek navigators did penetrate through the straits of
the Dardenelles and the Bosphorus into the Euxine.
The geographical notions of Homer as gathered from
his two great epics are embodied in the statements,
namely that the Ethiopians, a burnt-faced people, lived
in the south of Egypt, on the borders of the ocean-
jstream at the extreme limits of the world and that they
were 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 Greek
language is the geographical treatise of Hecateus,
which was probably published before the end of the
sixth century B. C. The work was named Periodus,
that is, Description of the Earth. Unfortunately it
has perished and what we know of it, is collected from
the fragments quoted in the works of later writers,
which have been brought together and published by
Miiller-Didot in his Fragmenta Historicum Grcecorum.
Between Homer and Hecateus, there had been a
great widening of the horizon. A long time after
Hecateus, however, curiosity and love of enquiry
seemed to have urged the travellers to visit foreign
GREECE AND ROME 17
countries and among the earliest of this class was
Pythagoras, who certainly visited Egypt about 500
B; C. Still everything beyond the basin of the
Mediterranean was only known to the Greeks by the
reports of other nations. No Greek navigator ad-
ventured beyond the Pillars of Hercules or found
his way to the Erythraean Sea. Whatever rumours
were current about Ethiopia or India must have
reached the Greeks through the Egyptians, the
Phoenicians, and later on the Persians. But the
conquest of the Greek cities in Asia Minor by
the generals of the great Persian monarchs had let
in a new flood of light ; the Milesians and the Samians
became subjects of a monarch who resided in Meso-
potamia and this must have opened to the conquered
-a new and wonderful world. Darius conducted an
expedition against the Scythians crossing into Europe.
Soon began the Persian wars and the Greek citizens
became aware of the kingdoms and cities, of races and
languages, of which Homer had never dreamt. It must
be admitted however that from Hecateus the Greeks
had already heard the names of the Caspian Sea, of
India 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 an
epoch in geography as well as in history. Proceeding
southward it appears clearly that his knowledge was
confined to the limits of the Persian kingdom. Of
Arabia he had only a vague knowledge, but the
navigation on the Red Sea was established and com-
merce supplied not only the frankincense and myrrh
of Arabia Felix, but cinnamon and cassia of a country
* Vide Gust, The Geography of the Greeks and the Romans.
2
18 GREECE AND ROME
far beyond India or Ceylon. He alludes to tides as
a phenomenon, with which the Greeks were not
familiar in their own inland sea. To Herodotus we
are indebted for all AVC know about the voyage of
Skylax from the mouths of the Indus to the Persian
Gulf ; from him we first hear of the cotton and the
bamboos of India and of the famous story of the
gold-digging ants as large as foxes and many wonderful
myths about India.
The founding of Alexander's Empire brought to
the East an expansion of Greek culture ; it promoted
an 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 Southern
France, 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 Persian
palaces, had already long been subject to Greek
influence ; so that the Greeks won their place in the
history of the world far more as citizens of the Medi-
terranean sphere than by their domestic struggles.
The founding of Alexandria and revival of Babylon
had created great cities in the East, which from the
height of their intellectual and material civilisation,
were destined to be the centres of the new Empire.
The long stored-up treasures of the Achaemenids
once 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 and
Upanishads became available to the Greeks. Alexander
GREECE AND ROME 10
thought that the political organisation of Hel-
lenism, the world-empire, was only possible by a
fusion of races. But the nuptials of the Orient and the
Occident, which were celebrated at the wedding
festival in Susa, remained a slave-marriage, in which
the West was the lord and master. By the transplant-
ation of nations from Asia to Europe and from Europe
to Asia, it was proposed to gain for the world-
monarchy, with its halo of religious sanctity, the
support of those disconnected masses which were
united with the ruling dynasty alone, but had no
coherence among themselves. Thus the old heredi-
tary culture of the East and the new-born energy of
the West seemed to be welded together and Greek had
become the language of the civilized provinces of the
Western Asia. And this inheritance of Alexander was
not transitory. Even if on that summer's evening of
June 13, 323 B. C., when the news that he was dead
and that the world was without a master burst on
the passionately excited populace at Babylon, the
plans for the future were abandoned and the dis-
integration of the mighty empire was inevitable, yet
the creation of a new sphere of culture, which parti-
ally embraced the ancient East, was the work of
Alexander.
The focus of political activity shifted towards
the East and the direction of the world-commerce
changed ; the centres were now the Greek cities founded
or revived by Alexander. The combined commerce
of Ethiopia, India, Arabia and Egypt itself, converged
on 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
20 GREECE AND ROME
Mesopotamia. Thus even the remote countries of the
East now drew nearer to Hellenism. The Greeks
of Asia Minor had of course belonged to the same
empire as a part of the Indian nation, so that com-
merce was early able to bring into the Punjab the
products of Greek art ; and philosophical ideas such
as the Indian doctrine of the transmigration of souls
found their way to Greek territory. It is certain
that the Indians had become familiar with the Greek
alphabet at the time of the grammarian Panini, about
4th century B. C., but it was not until Alexander's
expedition, that the Indian trade, which was now so
important to Alexandria, became a part of Greek
commerce. The Indian custom of ornamenting
golden vessels with precious stones was adopted in
the sphere of Greek culture ; and Indian jacinth
became a favourite material with lapidaries. With
the Indian precious stones came their names, opal,
beryl, etc. into the West. Indian fables influenced
the Greek travellers' tales and the Greeks welcomed
the fantasies of the Indian folklore. In the age
subsequent to Alexander, a flourishing commerce
was maintained with India and Megasthenes in
astonishment tells us of the marvellous country its
splendid mountains and groves, its smiling, well-
watered plains and the strong, proud race of men
who breathe the pure air.
But an influence also spread from the West to the
East. A typical instance of this is shown by the
fact that the Indian expressions connected with
warfare (e.g. Kalinos, a horse-bit = Sans. Khalina ;
Surige,a subterranean passage = Sans. Suranga) found
their way from Greek into Sanskrit. The plastic
GREECE AND ROME 21
arts were enriched. Doric (Kashmere), Ionic (Taxila)
and Corinthian (Gandhara) pillars arose in that
fairy land and the symbol of God of Love, the
dolphin, may have been transported from Greece
to India by the sculptor's art.* The relations of
Asoka with the West in the field of religion and
politics are stated in his Xlllth inscription, in which
is mentioned that the "Pious" king had succeeded
in winning over even the Greek princes, Amtiyoga
(Antiochus), Tulumaya (Ptolemaus), Amtikina (Anti-
gonus), Magas of Cyrene and Alikasadala (Alexander
of Epirus). Greek vitality must have been latent
in these kingdoms of Greek conquistador es, since
they did not shrink from the danger of mutual
hostility. 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 the
town of Demetrias (Dattamittiyaka-Yonaka) which
he built, appear in the stirring verses of the Maha-
bharata. Tibetan hordes drove him out of Bactria
and forced him completely into the Punjab. The
huge gold coins of his successor Eukratides, with
the bust of a king and a horseman (Dioscuros) are
described by Chinese records of the first century B.C.
Indian culture and philosophy must have gained a
footing in Bactrian kingdom by degrees. King
Menander (c. 125-95 B. C.) was already a Buddhist ;
but even when fading away, this Greek civilisation
had strength enough to influence the adjoining Indo-
* For a detailed study of the Hellenic influence on the civilisation of
ancient India, vide my book "Hellenism in Ancient India," (published by
Messrs. Butterworth & Co., London and Calcutta).
22 GREECE AND ROME
Scythian territory, as is evidenced by the use of Greek
letters and inscriptions on the coins of this empire.
Thus in the remotest east of the countries which
were included in the habitable region on the fringe
of the East Asiatic world, the Greek spirit wan-
tonly prodigal of its forces, was tearing itself to
pieces, yet nevertheless was able to influence coinage,
art and astronomy, as far as India. In the Nile valley
and at Babylon native authors such as Manetho and
Berossus wrote in Greek ; and the Greeks explored the
Red Sea, the Caspian, the Nile and the Scythian
steppes. The same Hellenism had founded for itself
in the West a province of Hellenic manners and
customs and had completely enslaved it. This was
the Roman Empire, now coming to the fore, which as
it took its part in the international commerce, offered
the Greek intellect a new home with fresh constitu-
tional and legal principles.
In the first centuries before and after Christ, when
the Kushanas were establishing themselves among
the ruins of the Bactrian and other semi-Greek prin-
cipalities of North-Western India, great changes were
taking place in the West. Rome was absorbing the
remains of the Empire of Alexander. Syria had
already fallen and Egypt became a Roman province
in 30 B. C. The dissensions of Civil War ended at
Actium, after which Augustus settled down to organise
and regulate his vast possessions. The effect of the
Pax Romana upon trade was of course very marked.
Piracy was put down, trade-routes secured and the
fashionable world of Rome, undistracted by conflict,
began to demand on an unprecedented scale oriental
luxuries of every kind. Silk from China, fine muslins
GREECE AND ROME 23
from India and jewels and pearls from the Persian
coast were exported from eastern parts for personal
adornment. Drugs, spices, condiments and cosmetics
from the East fetched high prices in the bazars of
Rome.
The news of the accession of Augustus quickly
reached India. Many Indian states sent embassies
to congratulate him, an honour never paid before to
any Western prince. The most striking of these was
one sent by an important king called, according to
Strabo, Pandion. Prof. Rawlinson identifies him with
Kadphises I. Strabo relates that Nicolaus Damas-
cenus met at Antioch, Epidaphne the survivor of this
Embassy to Augustus bearing a letter in Greek from
the Indian prince. With them was Zarmanochegus
(Sramanacharyya) of Barygaza or Broach, who was
evidently a Buddhist monk and who imitated Kalanos
by burning himself on a funeral pyre at Athens.
Allusions to this Embassy are made by Horace in
his Odes. Florus and Suetonius refer to it and Dio
Cassius speaks of its reception at Samos, B. C. 22-20
and mentions Zarmanos as accompanying it. It is
also mentioned by Hieronymus in his translation of the
Canon Chronicon of Eusebius, but is placed by him in
the 3rd year of the 188th Olympiad i.e. 26 B. C.*
Indian Embassies visited Rome henceforward from
time to time.; as for instance, an embassy was sent
in 41 A. D. from Ceylon to Emperor Claudius. Pliny
relates of this Embassy that a freedman of Annius
Plocamus, being driven into Hippuros, hearing about
Vide Reinaud, Relations politiques et commerciales de I' Empire
Romain avec VAsie Orientate , and H. G. Rawlinson, India and the Western
World, loc. cit.
24 GREECE AND ROME
Rome, sent thither Rachias and three other Ambas-
sadors, from whom Pliny obtained the information
about Ceylon embodied in his Natural History. It
probably left Ceylon in the reign of Chandramukha-
siva (41-52 A. D.). Another Indian Embassy came
to Emperor Trajan about 107 A. D. and is said to
have been present at the shows given by him to the
Roman people. The fourth Embassy was sent to
Antoninus Pius about 138 A. D. According to Reinaud,,
towards the middle of the 1st century A. D., Taxila
is said to have been visited by Apollonius of Tyana.
He reached India after traversing Khorasan, the
Hindukush and the kingdom of Kabul. Apollonius
was a philosopher of the School of Pythagoras and
sought like that sage to extend his knowledge by
travelling into foreign countries. He came to
Hindusthan to explore the wonders of India and to
make himself acquainted with the learning and
wisdom of the Brahmans, the fame of whom had been
spread in the West by the companions of Alexander
the Great.
Trade between India and Rome continued to
thrive steadily during the second and third centuries
A. D. This was chiefly due to the discovery of the
existence of the monsoon winds blowing regularly
across the Indian Ocean by a captain of the name of
Hippalus. To the Arab sailors the phenomenon was
however no secret, as the term Monsoon from the
Arabic Mauzim implies. There was a temporary
lull in the demand of luxuries, after the extraordinary
outburst of extravagance which culminated in the
reign of Nero, but this did not have a serious effect
upon commerce. Roman Emperors took an increas-
GREECE AND ROME 25
ing interest in the Eastern questions, but we can
only approximately determine how far the direct
maritime traffic went towards the East. In the first
instance, it took the direction of Barygaza (Broach),
which great mart must have remained throughout the
whole period the centre of the Egypto-Indian traffic.
In the Flavian period, the whole West coast of India
was opened up to the Roman merchants, as far down
as the coast of Malabar, the home of the highly-
esteemed and dearly-priced pepper, for the sake of
which 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-Claudian
epoch have been discovered, which were formerly
exchanged against the spices destined for the Roman
kitchens. Thus the Western coast of India and even
the mouth of the Ganges, to say nothing of the
further Indian Peninsula, maintained regular com-
mercial intercourse with the Roman Empire. Chinese
silk was already at an early period sold regularly to
the Occidentals, a; it would appear, exclusively by
the land-route and through the medium partly of the
Indians of Barygaza, but chiefly of the Parthians.
That the Hindus did not always wait for others
to come to them for goods is in evidence in a variety
of ways. There is first the statement of Cornelios
Nepos, who says that Q. Metellus Celer received, from
the king of the Suevi some Indians, who had been
driven by storm into Germany in the course of a
voyage of commerce (vide M'Crindle, Ancient India,.
p. 110). This is quite a precise fact, and is borne
out by a number of tales of the voyages with the
26 GREECE AND ROME
horrors attending navigation depicted in the liveliest
colours in certain classes of writings both in Sanskrit
and Tamil. So during this period and for a long time
after, the Hindusthan proper kept touch with the
outer world by way of land mainly ; while the Deccan
kept itself in contact with the rest of the world chiefly
by way of the sea. The Baveru Jataka is certain
proof of this intercourse by way of the sea. Still
more remarkable is the fact that the ancient Hindu
mariners used to have light-houses to warn ships and
one such is described at the great port at the mouth
of the Kavery, a big tower or a big palmyra trunk
carrying on the top of it a huge oil-lamp.
Now, one of the most curious relics of the trade
between Egypt and India during the Roman period,
has been recently unearthed at Oxyrrhyncus. It
is a papyrus containing a Greek farce of the second
century A. D. which deals with the story of a Greek
lady named Charition, who had been shipwrecked on
the Canarese coast. The locality is identified by the
fact that the king of the country addresses his retinue
as indon promoi. Dr. Hultzsch is of opinion that the
barbarous jargon in which they addressed one another
is actually Canarese.
Again, Dio Chrysostom, who lived in the reign of
Trajan, mentions Indians among the cosmopolitan
-crowds to be found in the bazars of Alexandria ; and
he 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 the
knowledge possessed by the Christian writer Clement
of Alexandria, who died about 220 A. D. The most
important of his statements are that the Brahmans
GREECE AND ROME 27
despise death and set no value on life, because they
believe in transmigration of souls and that the Semnoi
(Buddhist Sramanas) worship a kind of pyramid,
beneath which they imagine that the bones of a
divinity of some kind lie buried. This remarkable
allusion to the Buddhist Stupa is the earliest reference
in Western literature to that unique feature of Bud-
dhism and must have been derived from some in-
formant intimately acquainted with the doctrines of
Gautama Buddha. Clement distinguishes clearly be-
tween Sramanai and Brachmanai, while earlier writers
like Megasthenes confuse them. Archelaus of Carrha
(278 A. D.) and St. Jerome both mention Buddha by
name and Buddha's story was narrated in the 8th
century by John of Damascus as the life of a Christian
Saint. We may notice incidentally here that Buddha
has been canonised by the Christian Church under the
appellation of St. Josaphat and has been included in
the Martyr ology of Pope Gregory XIII. In both the
Roman and the Greek Churches, a day is set apart
for St. Josaphat, which name is a corruption of Bodhi-
sattwa. There is also reason to suppose that the story
of the life of St. Eustathius Placidus is a version of
Nigrodhamiga Jataka. The influence of Buddhism
on Christianity is still deeper. The more one reads
of Pali Scriptures, the more one is convinced that the
life and teachings of the Buddha, have been duplica-
ted in the Gospels of the Apostles. The marvels and
the wonders, which happened at the time of the
Buddha's conception, birth, renunciation, temptation
and enlightenment and which are to be found in the
Achariya Abhuta Sutta, and Majjhima Nikaya. have a
curious similarity to the miracles in the Gospels. It
28 GREECE AND ROME
seems evident that Buddhism by means of its convents
for monks and nuns, its legends of Saints, its worship
of relics, and above all, through its rich ritual and
hierarchical pomp did exercise an influence on the
development of Christian worship and ceremony. We
may therefore say with Prof. Sylvain Levi, that "it
looks as if the whole universe moved under a common
impulse to a work of salvation under the auspices of
Buddhism."
With Cosmas Indicopleustes however, who visited
India in the 6th century A. D., the last voyage of the
ancient world was undertaken. The long night of
the Middle Ages was now settling down upon the
Western world. The Neo-Sassanian Empire, with its-
great Persian renaissance, had manned a fleet which
was fast sweeping the Roman vessels from Eastern
waters. In 364 A. D., the first fatal step in the down-
fall of Rome had been taken when the Empire was
divided ; in 410, came the Goths and Vandals and
50 years later the mightiest kingdom the world has
ever seen had ceased to exist. Trade with the East,,
in spite of Persian rivalry struggled feebly on and the
latest recorded Eastern Embassy to Constantinople
reached that city in 530 A. D.
Mr. Sewell, who has made an elaborate study of
the Roman Coins found in India, considers that an
examination of the coin-finds leads to the following
conclusions (vide J. R. A. S. 1904, p. 591) :
(i) There was hardly any commerce between
Rome and India during the Consulate.
(ii) With Augustus began an intercourse which,
enabling the Romans to obtain Oriental
luxuries during the early days of the
CENTRAL ASIA 20
Empire, culminated in the time of Nero,
who died A. D. 68.
(Hi) From this time forward the trade declined
till the time of Caracalla, A. D. 217.
(iv) From the time of Caracalla it almost
entirely ceased.
(v) The maritime activity revived again,
though slightly, under the Byzantine
Emperors.
He also infers that the trade under the early
Emperors was chiefly in luxuries ; under the later
ones in industrial products ; and under the Byzantines
the commerce was with the South-West of India and
not with the interior. He moreover differs from
those who find an explanation of this fluctuation in
the political and social condition of India itself, and
the facilities or their absence for navigating the seas ;
and considers that the cause is to be sought for in the
political and social condition of the Romans them-
selves. We fully agree with this view of Mr. Sewell as
is borne out by the contemporary history of Rome
about the 4th and 5th centuries A. D.
CENTRAL ASIA
Till comparatively recent times, the vast highlands
of Asia with their glittering ramparts of eternal snow,
their pasture grounds, their bleak deserts and verdant
oases, were regarded with awe by the civilised nations.
It seems that science in harmony with the religions
and myths of so many people has succeeded in demons-
30 CENTRAL ASIA
trating by almost irrefragable proofs that Central
Asia was the primitive home of mankind, the cradle,
whence our own forefathers were sent out in the
pride of youth to find out eventually a new home
in Europe, while others descended into India. The
mass of nebulous tradition is brought into contact
with the traces of widely diverse nationalities and
religions and must consult in its turn the annals of
the Indians, Iranians, Greeks, Scythians, Chinese,
Turks and Russians. Indeed the earliest references
to Turkestan that have reached us, are contained
in the Indian and Iranian Epics and lend colour
to the theory that the Pamirs were the birth-place
of the Aryan race.* Thus the belief in the im-
portance of Central Asia for the earliest history
of mankind was not altogether irrational. Around
this 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 common
fountain-head of these higher civilisations must
look for it in Central Asia. In later times, the im-
portance of Middle Asia for the history of mankind
seems indeed much changed but not less perceptible.
It no longer produces the germs of civilisation, but
like an ever-glowing volcano, sends out streams of
warlike nomads and shakes the earth far and wide,
so that smiling lands become desolate and prosperous
towns sink into dust. From the earliest times to the
present day mankind has been deeply influenced by
the existence of Central Asia and its races. India
was repeatedly overrun by hordes of Central Asiatic
nomads, but for a long time it exercised little in-
Vide Ch. de Ujfalvy, Les Aryens au nord et au sud de V Hindou Kouch.
CENTRAL ASIA 31
fluence generally on the steppe region and almost
none politically, since the barrier of the Himalayas
was a deterrent from military enterprises and apart
from this, the natural features of Tibet offered nc*
attraction to a conqueror. But here, as in so many
other cases, the spirit of religion has been mightier
than the sword. Northern India, that great seminary
of religious and philosophic thought, gradually made
its influence felt in Central Asia and by Buddhist
propaganda revolutionised the lives and opinions
of the nomads. It was of course a case of scattered
seeds, which were carried across the mountains and
struck root independently, and we must not imagine
any permanent union of Indian Philosophy with the
nomad culture of the steppes.
The civilised countries of Western Asia were
better protected than India against the tide of rest-
less nomads. Between the Caspian Sea and the
Himalayas rise the mountains of Khorassan and
Afghanistan. Eastward of these, the fertile districts
of the Oxus and the Jaxartes, where agricultural
colonies and fortified towns could grow up, formed
a vanguard of civilisation. Between the Caspian
and the Black Sea, the Caucasus rises like a bulwark
built for the purpose and cuts off Western Asia from
steppes of Southern Russia, that ancient arena of
nomad hordes. So long as the natural boundaries
are maintained, the fertile plains of Western Asia
were 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 nomads
found homes to their liking in the steppes, which
abound in Iran, Syria and Asia Minor and consequent-
32 CENTRAL ASIA
ly preserved their individuality far longer than in
China and were only partially absorbed by the peoples
they had conquered. Europe on the other hand was
never able to ward off the inroads made from Central
Asia. The Huns advanced to the Atlantic, the Avars
and Hungarians invaded France, the Mongols reached
Eastern Germany and the Osman wave spent itself
against the walls of Vienna. That continent still
harbours in the Magyars, the Turks and numerous
Finnish and Mongolian tribes, the remnants of these
inhabitants 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 absolute
terror which the incursions of these roving Asiatic
tribes filled the hearts of the survivors, might well
lead us to paint the perpetrators of such horrors in
the darkest colours and to consider them as a species
of ravenous wild beasts rather than as beings deser-
ving the name of men. But such a view would be
premature. The nature of herdsman, who grows
up on the wild steppe and in consequence of his
wanderings is forced to limit his possessions to a
few movables, has a simplicity which is not devoid of
dignity. The wide, clear horizon of his home is
reflected in his temperament. The flowers of imagina-
tion and thought, which blossom so magnificently
in the tropical plains of India or in the luxuriant
gardens of Iran, find no nourishment in the wild
steppes of Central Asia. A sober clearness of thought
is 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
CENTRAL ASIA 33
with the founding of the Bactrian Empire, shows
us that India, which from all time had possessed a
n^agic attraction for every conquering people was one
of their first victims. But the southern part of the
Bactrian Empire stood a bulwark against their
inroads for some hundred years more. Then about
25 B. C. Kujula Kadphises. who had reunited Yue-
Chi after their division into five clans, subdued the
modern Afghanistan. This immediately opened the
road 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 thus
laid the foundation of the Indo-Scythian Empire.
Undeniably the fact that Bactria as far as the borders
of Central Asia was then united with large portions
of India under one rule, did much to make the Indian
influence, especially Buddhism then flourishing in
India, felt far away northward. India generally
entered into closer and more direct relations with
Central Asia. Fifty years after the establishment
of the Indo-Scythian Empire, the Buddhist propa-
ganda had already reached China.
But while a large part of Central Asia first acquires
importance for the history and culture of mankind
on the appearance of nomad peoples and as the
fountain-head of a disintegrating force, the Tarim
basin, which is also called Eastern Turkestan or High
Tartary, claims the attention of the historian far
earlier and in another sense. The Tarim basin formed
in ancient days the bridge between the Eastern and
Western Asiatic civilisation, even if it was not an
international highway, and witnessed a higher civi-
lisation develop in its fertile regions. The key to
3
34 CENTRAL ASIA
many problems of the pre-historic period lies buried
under the burning sands of Eastern Turkestan.
The ancient trade-communications through the
Tarim basin are certainly to be regarded as a relic
of the former connection with civilisation. The
nomads, however as such, are not inclined to amass
the heavy goods, which the town merchants store up
in their vaults. In the Tarim basin, therefore, the
real traders were always to be found among the
settled inhabitants of the oases, although the security
and success of their commerce depended on the
good-will of the nomads. [The earliest recorded trade
which passed through the Tarim basin and brought
Eastern 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 which
intersected it and the lawless hordes which infested
it. As it was impossible for a single traveller to
undertake these long and arduous journeys it became
necessary to collect companies either sufficiently
numerous to defend themselves or able to pay for their
protection of a body of guards. Such bodies of men
or Caravans as we call them, could not be collected at
a moment's notice or in every place ; and it was
necessary that a rendezvous should be appointed, so
that the merchants and travellers might know where
to join a sufficient force for their common defence.
In like manner, the places of resort for the sale as well
as the purchase of their merchandise were necessarily
fixed, being recommended by their favourable position
or by some other circumstance, such as long usage,
In the vast steppes and sandy deserts, which they had
CENTRAL ASIA 35
to traverse, Nature had sparingly allotted to the travel-
lers a few scattered places of rest. Such places of rest
became also entrepots of commerce and not infre-
quently the sites of temples and sanctuaries, under the
protection of which the merchant prosecuted his trade,
and to which pilgrims resorted ; and these centres
frequently grew to great and opulent cities and
contributed by motives of interest or necessity to
attract to the same route the various bands of travel-
lers, e. g., Samarkand, Kashgar, Khotan &c.
The towns and trading settlements in the Tarim
basin, which are mentioned by Aristeas, can partially
be 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 beneath
the sands which have been recently explored by
Dr. Sven Hedin and Sir M. A. Stein. Further
aid towards identification are furnished by the
accounts of the Macedonian merchant Maes or
Titianus, who enables us to fix the stations
on the East Asiatic trade-route in the first
century A.D. This road led from Samarkand to
Ferghana, whence the "Stone Tower" and the
valley of the Kisil Su were reached, at the entrance
of which an important trading-town lay in the
territory of Kasia. This was certainly the modern
Kashgar, for which natural advantages of situation
have secured uninterruptedly since ancient times a
foremost position among the cities of the Tarim basin.
But the connection with India, the beginnings of
which are obscure, was of great importance to this
civilisation. In this way, Eastern Turkestan became
the bridge on which Indian manners and customs
86 CENTRAL ASIA
-and above all Indian religion passed both to China
and the rest of Central Asia, destined in course of time
to work great revolutions in the character and habits
of the Central Asiatic peoples.
No success, it is true, attended the attempts to
come into direct communication with India through
Tibet, and thus obviate the necessity of bringing
Indian goods by a detour through the Tarim basin,
although the Emperor Wu Ti made various efforts with
this object in view and a small transit trade directly
from India to Tibet must have been in existence
long before his time. Maritime trade flourished at a
later time, when the distance between the Chinese
and Indian ports had been immensely lessened by the
conquest of Southern China. It is significant that the
real impetus to maritime commerce was not given
until the second century A.D. when the Chinese
lost the command of the highways of Central Asia. The
long series of disorders, which soon afterwards broke
out in China, completely checked any vigorous foreign
policy, while the growing prosperity of the maritime
commerce diminished to a great extent the importance
of the overland trade. The petty states of the Tarim
basin for many years subsequently led a quiet exis-
tence, more influenced by India than by China.
The importance of Buddhism for the west of
Central Asia was chiefly felt before the Mongol period.
The activity of the Buddhist missionaries outside
the confines of India could not be vigorously exerted
until the new religion had taken firm root in its native
country. The period of the great Asoka marks both
the victory of Buddhism in Northern India and the
extension of political and religious influences towards
CENTRAL ASIA 37
the northwest. Kashmir, the bridge of Central
Asia, recognised the suzerainty of Asoka. Even
if Buddhism was unable to gain a firm footing there,
still access had been obtained to the civilised oases of
the Tarim basin, where the new religion quickly found
a ready acceptance. In externals, this Buddhism,
it must be admitted, was no result of purely Indian
culture. In the first place, the Iranians had en-
croached upon India and left traces of their nationality
on the manners and customs of the people ; and after
the age of Alexander the Great, an offshoot of
Hellenistic civilisation existed in Bactria which
exercised an effective influence on the art and culture
both in the Tarim basin and in north-western India.
The Graeco-Buddhist art and culture of northwest
India found a new home in the Tarim basin. But
generally speaking, Indians of pure race preached
the new faith and their labours led naturally enough
to 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 to
have founded a dynasty. Khotan, owing to its
geographical position, generally forms the connect-
ing link between Central Asia and India and shows
in its civilisation abundant traces of Indian influ-
ence (vide M. A. Stein, The Sand-buried Ruins
of Khotan.} A large number of Buddhist shrines
and monasteries were to be found in Khotan. The
densely populated oasis, helped by its religious impor-
tance, repeatedly obtained great power, although it
could not permanently keep it, since, as the key to
the trade-route from India and as the southern road
38 CENTRAL ASIA
from the West to the East, it appeared a valuable
prize to all the conquering tribes of Central Asia.
From Khotan, Buddhism spread farther over the
Tarim basin and its northern boundary. The clearest
proof of this is to be found in the numerous cave-
temples constructed on Indian model, as well as in
the products of Graeco-Buddhist art, which the
explorations of Sir Marc Aurel Stein have brought
to light, especially in the western part of Eastern
Turkestan. It was certainly the settled portions
of the nation, which were steeped in the ancient
civilisation, that most eagerly adopted the higher
forms of religion. The nomads were less satisfied with
it. But the efforts of civilisation and religion to
tame the barbarous people of Central Asia had been
continued for many centuries. Temples of Buddha,
Zoroastrian seats of culture, Christian churches and
Moslem mosques arose in the oases ; industries flou-
rished, trade brought foreign merchants into the
country and those who aimed at a refinement of
manners and customs and a nobler standard of life
were amply provided with brilliant models. Of the
nomads a less favourable account must be given ;
and yet in many of them the higher forms of religion
had struck root. Skilled writers were to be found
among them, and the allurements of civilised life
made considerable impression. The road which
was destined to lead these tribes out of their ancient
barbarism had already been often trodden ; the
forces of civilisation seemed pressing on victoriously
in every direction. The nomad spirit then once more
rallied itself to strike a blow more formidable than
any which had previously fallen. The effort was
CHINA 39
successful and, as the result of it, a region once pros-
perous and progressive lay for generations at the
mercy of races whose guiding instincts were the
joy of battle and the lust of pillage. The world
glowed with a blood-red light in the Mongol age.
Twice, first under Genghis Khan and his immediate
successors and secondly under Timur, the hordes
of horsemen burst over the civilised countries of Asia
and Europe ; twice they swept on like a storm-cloud,
as if they wished to crush every country and convert
it into a pasture for their flocks. And so thoroughly
was the work of ravage and murder done, that to the
present day, desolate tracts show the traces of their
destructive fury. These were the last great eruptions
of the Central Asiatic volcano before Civilisation
ultimately triumphed.
CHINA
China is the only kingdom on the habitable globe,
which has continued without interruption from a
remote antiquity to modern times. Though later
in date than Egypt and the kingdoms of Western Asia,
yet its authentic history embraces a period of two
thousand and five hundred years, while the compa-
ratively high state of civilisation evidenced at the
beginning of this epoch implies another one thousand
and five hundred years of previous development.
Remoteness and inaccessibility have invested this
country, which was to East Asia what Greece and
Home were to Europe, with a mysterious splendour
40 CHINA
which has often led the investigators to misestimate
its actual condition.
The Chinese literature, so vast in extent, contains
very considerable accounts of the geography of Asia
at different times and of the nations who lived in that
part of the ancient world. The greater part of these
accounts is to be found in the histories of the various
dynasties which have up to the present time, suc-
cessively ruled in China. At the end of each of these
dynastic histories, twenty-four in number, a section
more or less extensive is to be found devoted to the
foreign countries and nations who came in contact with
the Chinese Empire. They are generally termed Sz*
Yi, the four kinds of barbarians, in allusion to the four
quarters of the globe. These notions were probably
collected by Chinese envoys, or compiled from the
reports of the envoys or merchants of these countries
coming to China. Almost all Chinese works treating
of foreign countries drew their accounts from these
sources ; 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 foreign
countries are those drawn up in the form of narr-
atives of journeys undertaken by the Chinese. It
seems that the Chinese never travelled for pleasure
or visited distant countries for the purpose of en-
larging the sphere of their ideas. All the narratives
of their travels owe their origin either to military
expeditions or to official missions of the Chinese
Vide Marquia d'Hervey de St. Denys, Ethnographie des Peuple
e'trangers a la Chine.
CHINA 41
Emperors, or they are written by Buddhist and other
pilgrims, who visited India or other parts of Asia
in search of sacred literature. They often contain
very valuable accounts regarding the ancient geo-
graphy of Asia, but it is not easy to lay them under
contribution in elucidating this subject in a scientific
sense. Generally, it is very difficult to search them
out, for they do not exist for the greater part as
separate publications, but lie concealed among the
numerous volumes of the Chinese collections of
reprints (Is'ung shu). Many of these interesting
ancient narratives are lost and their existence in
former times is only known from ancient cata-
logues or by quotations of other Chinese authors.
Now, the Chinese records tell us that foreign trade
in China had for a long time been covered by the name
inseparable from the early foreign enterprises of
the Chinese Courts, of "tribute." The word "tribute"
in Chinese annals was nothing but a substitute
for what might as well have been called "exchange
of produce" or trade the trade with the foreign
nations being a monopoly of the Court. The latter
would refuse to trade unless it was done under its
own conditions, namely the appearance of the offering
of gifts as a sign of submission and admiration on the
part of the distant monarch. In each case,*the full
equivalent was paid for these offerings in the shape
of counter-gifts presented to the so-called Amb-
assadors by the Chinese Court. Such "tributary"
countries were Arabia, Persia and India. The
tribute-bearers were in reality nothing better than
private merchants who purchased the counter-gifts
of the Court, under the pretext of bringing tribute
42 CHINA
in the name of some distant monarch. Such rela-
tions existed between China and India from the oldest
times ; they had assumed larger dimensions under
the Han Dynasty, when certain nations were compelled
by force of arms to send in tribute, while others like
the Parthians and Syrians volunteered it as a matter
of speculation. The regularity with which these
transactions took place led to the creation of court-
officers connected with their management. We
read in Sui-shu that an office called Ssu-fang-Kuan
was established under the Emperor Yang-ti during
the period 605-617 at the Chinese capital for the
-special purpose of receiving the Ambassadors of the
countries 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 by
the Central Asiatic and trans-Himalayan tribes ;
and in the north representatives of the pie-ti, e.g., the
Tartars. For each of these four classes of traffic a
special officer was appointed, whose duty it was to
superintend "the exchange of produce," besides the
duties connected with the reception of the mission.
Of all the ports open to trade during the several
periods of Chinese history, Canton, or some locality
near Csfnton, is probably the oldest. Dr. Hirth
supposes that the ocean-trade between China and
the countries of Western Asia had its terminus in
some part of Tongking or Annam on the southern
frontier of China and he identifies this port with
the Eastern terminus of Roman navigation, Katti-
.gara, supporting the suggestion made by Baron
von Richtofen. Prof. Hirth also is inclined to believe
CHINA 43
that this part of Canton, the cradle of foreign trade,
has ever since the 3rd century B.C. been one of the
main channels of ocean-commerce. The mention
of white pigeons being kept on board the sea-going
ships 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 Asiatic
traders. Carrier-pigeons are mentioned as a familiar
Persian institution by Macandi and during the
Mongol rule in Persia important news was entrusted to
the 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 by
which India was known to the Chinese since the 1st
century B.C., when Buddhism was introduced from
India to China. But a more ancient Chinese name
for India is Shin-du. " This name evidently rendering
the Sanskrit Sindhu (river), which was taken for
India, appears in the Chinese annals about 120 B.C.,
after the expedition of General Chang-Kiento Western
Asia, who reported on the country of Shin-du from
hearsay" (Dr. Bretschneider, Mediceval Researches).
That there was a brisk transmarine commerce between
India and China is amply proved from the following
Chinese Texts :*
(i) ' The inhabitants of Tats'in (Syria) traffic
by sea with Au-hsi (Parthia) and T'ien-
chu (India), the profit of which trade
is ten-fold, -"Hou-han-shu" [ From this
passage, it certainly appears that the
people of Tats'in traded by sea with
Vide G. Hirth, China and the Roman Orient.
44 CHINA
India and China and that the profit derived
from this trade was theirs. ]
(ii) 'The inhabitants of Au-hsi (Parthia) and
T'ien-chu have trade with China ; its profit
is hundred-fold'-"C7mi-s/m." (written c.
265 A.D.)
(iii) 'As regards Tats'in and T'ien-chu far
out on the Western ocean, we have to say
that although the envoys of the two Han
Dynasties, Chang-Chien and Pan Chlao, have
experienced the special difficulties of this
road, yet traffic in merchandise has been
effected and goods have been sent out to the
foreign tribes, the force of winds driving
them far away across the waves of the
sea' "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 articles
of Tats'in, such as all kinds of precious
things, 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 frequently
visit 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 of
Au-hsi ( Parthia}. They always wish to
send embassies to China, but the Par-
thians wanted to make profit out of their
trade with us and would not allow us to
CHINA 45
pass their country. Further, they are
always anxious to 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 to
the 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. It
appears also from Wu-shih-wai-kuo-chuani.e.
the account of foreign countries at the time
of Wu, 222 A.D. that "ships were provid-
ed with seven sails ; they sailed from Kang-
tiao-chou and with favourable winds could
enter 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 and
Indian goods were chiefly landed, must have been
at the head of the present Gulf of Akabah, the ancient
Sinus ^Elanitius (Strabo, XVI, p. 781). The natural
advantages of a country like Syria must at any time
have commanded a superior position in oriental
trade, which is quite compatible with its comparatively
inferior position as a political power. Near the port was
the city of Petra, so-called by the Greek conquerors.
During the first two centuries A.D., Petra was the
seat of an immense commerce the great emporium
of Indian commodities, where merchants from all parts
of the globe, met for the purposes of traffic.* The
city fell under the Muhammedan Empire and from
Kiepert, Lehrb. d. alien Geogr. p. 184.
46 CHINA
that time to the beginning of the present century was
nearly lost to the memory of man. When the cele-
brated Swiss traveller Burckhardt discovered its
forgotten site in 1811, he found only a solitary column
and one ruined edifice left standing of all the sump-
tuous structures that once crowded this romantic
vale. It need hardly be added that the prosperity
of Petra was mainly dependent upon the caravan-
trade, which at this entrepot changed carriage and
passed from the hands of the southern to the northern
merchants. Mommsen writes that "it was in the
ports of the Nabatsean merchants, in the peninsula
of Sinai and in the neighbourhood of Petra, that goods
coming from the Mediterranean were exchanged
for Indian produce."
The introduction of Buddhism from India was an
event of the highest importance for the moral develop-
ment of China and is the most striking incident
of the rule of Han Dynasty and indeed in the whole
of China's history. An unauthenticated account
states that Indian missionaries had entered China
as early as 227 B.C. and in 122 B.C. a Chinese expedi-
tion is said to have advanced beyond Yarkand and to
have brought back a golden image of Buddha. Com-
munication between India and China becomes
very frequent from this date. Knowledge of foreign
doctrine entered the country and in 61 A.D. Emperor
Ming-ti sent messengers to India to bring back
Buddhist books and priests. The priests were
brought and one of them Kashiapmadanga (Kasy-
apa Matanga ) translated a Sutta in Layong. He
is followed in the same year by Fa-Ian, like the
other, a Sramana of Central India.
CHINA 47
The development of Buddhism seems to have
advanced somewhat slowly at first. Not until the
beginning of the 4th century do we hear men of Chinese
rank began to take upon themselves the vows of
Buddhist monks. At the same period large monas-
teries were erected in North China and nine-tenths
of the common people are said at that time to have
embraced the Buddhist teaching. The kingdom
of Tsin seems to have been the chief centre of Budd-
hism and here in 405, a new translation of the sacred
Buddhist books was brought out. An army was
sent to India and brought back teachers to Chang-an,
who there undertook the work aided by 800 other
priests and under the Emperor's personal supervision.
Intercourse between China and India being constant
at the date, numerous travellers went southward,
returned with sages and books and wrote the story
of their travels. In 420, the Tsin Dynasty fell and
was replaced in the north by the Tartar We and in
the south by the native dynasty of Sung. The
princes of the two new dynasties at first displayed
an aversion to Buddhism. But after the death of
the first Emperor of the We dynasty, permission
was given to erect a Buddhist shrine in every town.
Similarly the persecution by the Sung princes soon
ceased and their government gained a reputation for
the 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 the
kingdom of Yauchen. In 526, the 28th Buddhist
patriarch Ta Mo (Bodhidharma) came to China by
sea ; the downfall of Buddhism in the country of its
48 FURTHER INDIA
origin had forced him and many of his co-religionists
to seek a new home in China, chiefly in Layong, where
3000 Indians are said to have lived in the 6th century
A.D. But in 714, a violent persecution of the Budd-
hists broke out. In spite of this, however, individual
priests continued to occupy state offices and the Indians
were entrusted with the arrangements of the Calendar.
Under the succeeding dynasties a reaction set in and
a strong support was given to Buddhism by the Mongol
Dynasty (1280-1388). The semi-barbarous con-
queror, Kublai Khan, was a zealous Buddhist and
his successors followed his example. Intercourse
with India increased and Indian Buddhism began
to exercise an important influence on Chinese
belief.*
FURTHER INDIA
The prehistoric period of Further India is shrouded
in gloom, though a few vague and general indications
may be derived from the sciences of comparative
philology and anthropology. These indications
alike point to early racial commixture and fusion.
From a philological point of view, several primordial
groups stand out in isolation. We have no means
of deciding where the first ancestors of these groups
may have dwelt. Upon the dates and histories again
of the ancient racial movements we have no informa-
tion whatever. Chinese histories refer indeed to an
Embassy 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.
FURTHER INDIA 49
Court of Chau. In 214 B.C. and in 109 A.D. Chinese
Generals founded dynasties of their own in Tong-
king. However we have no other information upon
the 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 value
whatsoever.
It is not till the first century A.D. that the general
darkness is somewhat lifted. On the northern frontier
and in the east, we find a restless movement and a
process of struggle with varying success, between
the Chinese and the native races, while in the south
Hindu civilisation is everywhere victorious. The
most important source of our knowledge upon the
affairs of Further India in those ages is Ptolemy's
description of the world, dating from the first half
of the second century A.D. The explanation of many
of his statements is due to the energy of Col. Gerini.
Ptolemy informs us that in his time the coast-line
of Further India was inhabited throughout its length
by 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 must
have taken place at least some centuries previously.
But the introduction of Brahman civilisation
was merely a victory for a few representatives of a
higher culture. The physical characteristics of the
population of Further India were but little influenced
by this new infusion. The movement can hardly
have begun before the period at which the Brahmans
colonised Orissa. From this point Brahmanism ap-
4
50 FURTHER INDIA
parently made its way to Indo-China by sea. On
the one hand, Brahmans did not advance along the
land-route, long hidden aid leading through the
Ganges Delta and Assam, until the second half of
the present millennium. On the other hand, the
proof of the fact that the colonisation was of a trans-
marine origin is the predominance of Hinduism
upon the coast (cp. the statement of Ptolemy, above).
The movement to Indo-China cannot have started
from Southern India, for the reason that Brahmanism
at the period had taken but little hold on the south,
and the transmission of civilisation from these
shores is therefore extremely improbable. It was
not until a much later period that the communic-
ation between the two countries began, the results of
which are apparent in the Dravidian influences
visible in the later temple-buildings of Indo-China.
Further evidences of the northern origin of Indo-
Chinese Brahmanism are the names of more important
towns of early Indonesia, which are almost entirely
borrowed from Sanskrit names of the towns in the
valley of the Ganges, and also the desire of the Indo-
Chinese rulers to retrace their origin to the mythical
Sun and Moon dynasties of Madhya-desa.
The maritime route led straight to Burmah,
but the Indian civilisation at the moment found
that province less favourable to its development
than that of the great and more hospitable Champa
Kingdom in the Central South. The Gulf of Ligor
and the banks of the great rivers of Cambodia
seem to have been the central points of Brahmani-
cal influence. From Upper Burmah to Cochin-China
countless temple-ruins are to be found at the
FURTHER INDIA 51
present day, with rich ornamental sculptures and
Sanskrit inscriptions, bearing evidence to the force
of the Brahmanical influences in earlier ages. Every
year important discoveries are made thanks to
ceaseless activity of the archaeologists deputed by
the French Government. According to M. E. Ay-
monier, most of the traditional names of the kings
of Cambodia are to be read in inscriptions in the
Sanskrit form from the 3rd century A.D. to 1108. At
a later period, within this district, Sanskrit writing
gave place to the native Khemer Script. Inscribed
memorials, carvings and buildings generally, make
it clear that Siva and his son Ganesa, were the most
widely distributed among the Hindu Pantheon. The
images and symbols of these gods are far more
numerous than those of the other figures of the
Hindu Mythology. However, Vishnu at this time
was also highly venerated. The most important and
beautiful Brahmana temples of Further India are
dedicated to this god, instances being the magni-
ficent temples of Angkor Thorn and Angkor Vat,
built as we learn from the evidence of inscriptions,
in 825 A.D. Thus the Hindu immigrants brought
with them the gods of Brahmanism and the beautiful
legends of the Ramayana. Nowhere do we find
any sublime creations equalling in grandeur and
artistic perfection those of Angkor Thorn and
Angkor Vat, which are not only unique in Indo-China
or even Asia, but perhaps in the whole world. The
bas-relief of Angkor Vat, which stretches its medley
of personages for more than a thousand yards on the
four sides of the main Temple is inspired by the
Ramayana and is evidently carved under Hindu in-
52 FURTHER INDIA
fluence. Says M. Pierre Loti in his fascinating volume
on " Siam" : " This temple is one of the places in
the world, where men have heaped together the greatest
mass of stones, where they have accumulated the
greatest wealth of sculptures, of ornaments, of foliage,
t)f flowers and faces. It is not simple as are the lines
-of Thebes and Baalbeck. Its complexity is as
bewildering even as its enormity. Monsters guard
all the flights of steps, all the entrances ; the divine
Apsaras in indefinitely repeated groups are revealed
^everywhere amongst the overhanging creepers."
Some centuries later, the powerful sovereigns of
Angkor saw arriving from the east, missionaries in
yellow robes, bearers of the new light at which
the Asiatic world was wondering. Buddha had
achieved the enlightenment of India and his emis-
saries were spreading over the east of Asia, to preach
there the same gospel of piety and love, which the
disciples of Christ had brought to Europe at a latter
period. The temples of Brahma became Buddhist
Viharas ; the statues changed their attitudes and
lowered their eyes with gentler smiles. Buddhism
advanced to Indo-China by two routes. The first
of these led straight from India and Ceylon to the
opposite coast. According to a tradition, Buddha-
ghosha in the 5th century A.D., after making the
translation of the sacred Scriptures in Pali, introduced
the doctrine of Buddha into the country, starting
from the island of Ceylon. Resemblances between
the script of Cambodia and the Pali of Ceylon testify
to the contact of civilisation and religion between
these two countries. Subsequently, however, the
Northern or Sanskrit developments of Buddhism
FURTHER INDIA 53
had advanced to Further India by way of Central
and Eastern Asia. The doctrine in this form was
first transmitted to the vigorous and semi-barbaric
tribes of the mountainous highlands, who seemed
to have accepted it readily. At any rate, the Thai
races (Laos, Shans and Siamese) who migrated
southward at a later period were undoubtedly zealous
Buddhists. Their advance about the end of the
first and second centuries A.D. implies a definite
retrogression on the part of Brahmanism in Indo-
China. Brahmanism decayed and the temples sank
into ruin. Upon their sites arose buildings, which
in the poverty of decoration and artistic conception
correspond to the humility of Buddhist theology
and metaphysics (see the sculptured figures of Buddha
and his Disciples in the interior of the Siamese Pagoda,
Vat Sut Hat, in Lucien Fournereau's "Le Slam Ancien,"
in the Annals du Musee Guimet). In Cambodia
alone did Brahmanism maintain its position for a
time, as is evidenced by the buildings and inscriptions
from the 6th to the 13th centuries. About the year
700, the northern type of Buddhism made an unobtru-
sive entrance and King Jayavarman (968-1002) under-
took reforms on behalf of Buddhism.
Brahmanism had been however very deeply
rooted, as is proved by the numerous Sanskrit words
borrowed by the modern language of Indo-China
and also by many special practices, which have
persisted even to the present day. Vishnu, Siva and
Ganesa, though no longer worshipped as gods, were
honoured as heroes, and their images in bronze and
stone decorate the temples side by side with the
images of Buddha, as for instance, in the temple of
54 INDONESIA
Vat Bot Phram at Bangkok. Vishnu remains one
of the heraldic devices on the royal banner of Siam
and the kings of this empire show special favour to
the Brahmans in their districts, who cling to the
old beliefs. The aristocracy of Cambodia too still lays
claim to certain privileges of the Kshattriyas, which
reminds us of the Brahmanical caste-system. The
religion of Champa again was chiefly Siva worship
(Lingapuja) and scarcely a trace of Buddhism is
to be discovered during the period from the 3rd to
the llth century. The history of this swift and
mysterious decline has never been written and the
invading forests guard the secret of it.
INDONESIA.
THE HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE OF THE INDIAN OCEAN.
Of all parts of the mighty ocean which encircles
the earth, none next to the Mediterranean seems by
its position and shape more adapted to play a part in
the history of the world than the Indian Ocean. Just
as the Mediterranean basin, so important for the course
of history of the human race, parts the immense
mass of the old world of the West and breaks it up
into numerous sections, so the Indian Ocean pene-
trates the same land-mass from the South in the shape
of an incomparably vaster and crescent-like Gulf,
having the continents of Africa and Australia on
either side, while directly opposite its northern
extremity, lies the giant Asia. In the number, there-
fore, of the continents surrounding it, the Indian
Ocean is inferior to none of the larger sea-basins -
neither to its great companion oceans, the Atlantic
and the Pacific in the West and the East, nor to the
INDONESIA 55
diminutive Mediterranean in the North ; each of
them is bounded by three continents.
From the historical standpoint the Indian Ocean
takes a very high place. It is true that its historical
importance is in no way equal to that of the Medit-
erranean, though the latter is tiny in comparison ;
but it lies exactly in the latitude, where "the zone
of greatest historical density" begins, being closed
towards the north by the mighty barrier of the Asiatic
continent, and therefore taking a share in that vast
trans-oceanic international commerce from the very
earliest times. This Ocean, lying as it does on the
southern edge of the old world, penetrating at so many
points the lands of ancient history and offering such
facilities for international intercourse, has been the
theatre of events, which are not wanting in grandeur
and are sometimes eminently suggestive.
But the remote past of the Indian Ocean is wrapped
in the same obscurity as that of the most parts of
the earth's surface. We are tempted to dwell on the
enigma in this case, because more than one investi-
gator has been inclined to look for the earliest
home of the primitive man in one part or another
of the Indian Ocean. But it is idle to speculate
when we have no sufficient materials for a conclusion.
The history of this ocean however is predominantly
economic and there is no reason to doubt that if we
could penetrate the darkness of the prehistoric
past, we should find a radically different state
of things. What life and movement there has been
on the high ways of the Indian Ocean is mainly
due to commerce. Its activity in this sphere is the
characteristic feature of its historical aspect ; many
56 INDONESIA
features of it may have been changed as millennium
after millennium rolled on, but the general expression
remains the same. All the nations, which ventured
out on to the Indian Ocean, especially the Hindus,
were chiefly induced to make such voyages for com-
mercial objects. The historical rdle of the Indian
Ocean, must therefore be regarded predominantly
from the standpoint of the history of trade. In
reality, it discloses prospects of remarkable depth
and reveals glimpses of the rise and fall of nations,
and here also the history of its trade is in fact the
history of the civilisation of our race, and, though
it is not any longer the only avenue of international
commerce, yet its busy waters even now, when the
East has been opened up to the widest extent, are
the great link of communication between the East
and the West.*
The commerce of the Indian Ocean goes back
far into remote antiquity. As we have noticed
elsewhere, the ancient Egyptians and the Phoeni-
cians were certainly the earliest authenticated navi-
gators of the Indian Ocean and its adjoining parts.
Although the ancient Egyptians had an invincible
predilection for seclusion, yet they tried at the most
different periods to bring themselves into direct
communication with the countries producing the
spices which they used so much and prized so highly.
But the first attempts at direct maritime comm-
unication with India from the West were certainly
made by the Phoenicians. Even if we put aside
the accounts given by Strabo of their early settlements
on the Persian Gulf and of their emporia at Tylos
* Vide Dr. K. Weule's article in Helmolt's WeUgeschichte, Band III.
INDONESIA 57
and Arados, yet their trading voyages on the north-
western Indian Ocean go back to the second millennium
B.C. Even at the time of the expedition sent by
Hiram of Tyre and Solomon, the magnificent and
wise king of the Hebrews, to Ophir from Ezion-geber
and Elath, the route to that mysterious land of 1 gold
was well-known and regularly frequented. The ease
with which they had acquired the monopoly of the
Mediterranean must have encouraged the Phoe-
nicians to gain a firm footing on the other expanse
of the sea lying within the sphere of their power,
especially since this new field for action, with its
fabulous treasures which were eagerly coveted by the
civilised world of that time, promised advantages
such as the Mediterranean, long since navigated
by them, could hardly afford.
The magnet however, which chiefly attracted
navigators into this ocean was the peninsula of India.
India and the Indian Ocean are two inseparable ideas,
as is shown by the two names. And yet this close
relationship holds good only in a limited sense. The
peninsula to the south of the Himalayas is, by its
geographical position, fitted to rule the surrounding
seas more than any other country which bounds the
Indian Ocean. Nevertheless during the long course
of its history, it never attained a commanding position.
"The fault," asserts Dr. Karl Weule, "lies simply
and solely in the ethnographical conditions of India.
The Aryans on their descent from the highlands of
Iran into the sultry plains of Hindustan were forced
to take over another nature and fell victims to it.
While adapting themselves in course of time to the new
conditions, they paid the natural tribute to the tropical
58 INDONESIA
and subtropical climates ; they underwent an inner
development which culminated in a religious expan-
sion, and never felt the necessity of employing against
the outside world the power of their overwhelming
numbers and their superior intellectual endowments.
The fact that the Vedic hymns and Manu's Code
mention Aryan voyages, which extended even to
the ancient island of Dioscorides (Socotra) is again
and again brought forward as a proof that trade
communications existed between India and the
West. The Indian Aryans never made a per-
manent habit of navigation. India never felt the
need of seeking the outside world, but it always
was destined to be the goal for the other nations,
by land as well as by sea. From its vast treasures
it has given to the world more than any other country
on the earth, but the world has had to fetch these
treasures for itself." We must admit that Dr.
Weule's statement is true only in a qualified sense,
for the Indian civilisation profoundly impressed the
culture of the Indonesians, the Siamese and even
the Cambodians from very early times, and the
ancient Hindus were not wholly averse to navigation.
The influences of the voyages and settlements of the
Aryan Hindus were not so powerful as those foreign
forces which were continually at work owing to the
favourable position of the islands of the Malaya Archi-
pelago, for purposes of intercourse. Asiatic nations had
long sought out the Archipelago, had founded settle-
ments and had been occasionally compelled to exer-
cise some political influence. The islands were indeed
not only the half-way houses for communication be-
tween Eastern Asia and the West, but they themselves
INDONESIA 59
offered coveted treasures. First and foremost among
these were spices, the staple of the Indian trade ;
gold and diamonds were found in the mines of Borneo
and there were many other valuable products. The
Chinese from East Asia obtained a footing in the
Malaya Archipelago ; from the West came the agents
of the Indonesian and East Asiatic commerce
the Hindus first, then the Arabs, and soon after them
the first Europeans, the present rulers of the Indo-
nesian island-world.
But the inhabitants of India influenced their
insular neighbours quite differently from the Chinese.
They brought to them, together with an advanced
civilisation, a new religion, or rather two religions,
which were destined to strike root side by side in
the Archipelago Brahmanism and Buddhism. Pro-
bably the first to cross the Bay of Bengal were the
sea-loving inhabitants of the Sunda Islands themselves,
who as bold pirates, like the Norwegian Vikings,
ravaged the coasts but also sowed the first seeds
of commerce. After this, the inhabitants of the
coasts of Nearer India, who had hitherto kept a brisk
intercourse only with Arabia and the Persian Gulf,
found something very attractive in the intercourse
with Indonesia, which induced some enterprising
merchants to sail to the islands so rich in spices, until
at last an organised and profitable trade was opened.
Many centuries however must need s elapse before the
spiritual influence of the Indian culture really made
itself felt there.
Since the Hindu has as little taste for recording
history as the Malay, the beginning of the intercourse
between two groups of peoples can only be settled
60 INDONESIA
by indirect evidence. John Crawfurd in this connec-
tion relies on the fact that the two articles of trade
peculiar to Indonesia, and in earlier times procurable
from no other source, were the cloves and the nutmegs.
The first appearance of these products on the
Western markets must accordingly give an indication
of the latest date at which the intercourse of Nearer
India with the Malaya Archipelago can have been
systematically developed. Both these spices were
named among the spices imported to Alexandria
for the first time in the age of Marcus Aurelius, i. e.,
180 A. D., while a century earlier "The Periplus
of the Erythraean Sea" does not mention them.
If then we reflect that a certain time would have
been required to familiarise the natives of India
with these spices, before there was any idea of shipping
them further, and that perhaps on the first trading
voyages, which must necessarily have been directed
towards the Straits of Malacca, products of that region
first and then the spices, which grow in the more
distant parts of the Archipelago, had been exchanged,
we are justified in placing the Indian-Malaya trade
in the first century of the Christian era. Chinese
accounts lead us to suppose that at this time Indian
merchants had even reached the south-east of China.
At a later period, more detailed accounts of Indo-
nesia reached the Grseco-Roman World. Even
before cloves and nutmegs appeared in the trade-
lists of Alexandria, Ptolemy the geographer had
already inserted on his Map of the World the names
"Malayu" and "Jawa." Various other facts point
to the position of Java as the centre of the civili-
sation of Indonesia, and as the emporium for the
INDONESIA 61
commerce which, some centuries later, was destined
to allure even the ponderous junks of the Chinese to
a voyage along its coast.
Following in the tracks of the merchants and
perhaps themselves condescending to do a stroke
of business, Indian priests gradually came to the
islands and won reputation and importance there.
India itself, however, at the beginning of the Chris-
tian era was not a united country from the religious
point of view. Buddhism like an invading torrent,
had destroyed the old Brahma Creed, had shattered
the caste-system and had then sent out its missionaries
to achieve splendid success in almost all the sur-
rounding countries. But it had not been able to
destroy altogether the old religion of the land ; Brah-
manism once more asserted itself with an inexhaustible
vitality. The growth of the Hindu influence on
Indonesia falls in this transition period, when the
two forms of religion existed side by side and the
religious disputes in India are not without importance
for this outpost of Indian culture. Buddhists and
Brahmans came on the scene, side by side, often
avowedly as rivals, although it remains doubtful
whether the schism led to warlike complications.
The fortunes of the two sects in the Malaya Archi-
pelago are remarkably like those of their co-reli-
gionists in India. In the former region, Buddhism
was temporarily victorious, and left its marks on
the most glorious epoch of Javanese history ; but
Brahmanism showed greater vitality and has not yet
been entirely rooted out while the Buddhist faith
only speaks to us from the gigantic ruins of the
temples.
62 INDONESIA
The thought is suggested that the Brahmanical
Hindus came from a different part of the peninsula
to the Buddhist. Dr. Fergusson conjectured the
home of the Buddhist immigrants to be at Gujrat
and at the mouths of the Kistna. The architecture
of the Buddhist temples in Java and the language
of the Sanskrit inscriptions found there lend colour
to this view. We may mention, however, that recently
it has been suggested by Dr. H. Kern and Dr. J.
Groneman, the great authorities on Buddhism,,
that the celebrated temples of Boro-Budur must
have been erected between 850 and 900 A.D. by the
followers of the Southern Buddhists (Hinayanists),
whose sects, for example, predominated on Southern
Sumatra in the kingdom of Sri-Bhoja. Brahmanical
and Buddhist monuments did not appear simulta-
neously in Java. The most ancient temples
were certainly erected not by the Buddhists but
by the worshippers of Vishnu in the 5th century A.D.
Some inscriptions found in the west Java, which may
also be ascribed to the followers of Vishnu date
from the same century. The Chinese Buddhist,
Fa Hian, who visited the island about this time
mentions the Hindus, but does not appear to have
found any members of his own faith there. Accor-
ding to this view, the Indians of the Coromondel
Coast would have first established commercial relations
with Indonesia, and it was only at a later period that
they were followed by the inhabitants of the north-
west coast of India. These also being connected with
the civilised countries of the West, gave a great
stimulus to trade and became the leading spirits of
the Indian colony in Java. This explains then the
INDONESIA 63
later predominance of Buddhism in the Malaya
Archipelago.*
In the eighth century A.D., the immigration of the
Hindus, including in their number many Buddhists,
seems to have increased in Java to an extraordinary
extent ; the construction of a Buddhist temple at
Kalasan in the year 779 A.D. is recorded in inscrip-
tions. The victory of Indian civilisation was con-
firmed and the rulers turned with enthusiasm to
the new forms of belief, and spent their accumulated
riches in the erection of gigantic temples modelled
upon those of India. From Java, which was then the
political centre of the Archipelago, the culture and
religion of the Hindus spread to the neighbouring
islands, to Sumatra, South Borneo, and other parts
of the Archipelago. The most easterly points where
Buddhism achieved any results were the island of
Ternate and the islet of Tobi, north-east of Halma-
hera, which already formed a stepping-stone to
Micronesia. At that time Pali was the language
of the educated classes. The Indian system of
writing stimulated the creation of the native scripts,
even among those tribes, which, like the Battaks
in the interior of Sumatra, were but slightly affected
in other respects by the wake of Indian civilisation.
The influence of India subsequently diminished.
In the 15th century it once more revived, a
fact that may certainly be connected with the
political condition of Java. Since Buddhism had
at this time almost disappeared in Nearer India,
this revival also implies a strengthening of the Brah-
manical doctrines, which had survived therefore
* Vide Dr. Heinrich Schurtz in the History of the World Vol. ii
64 JAVA
the fall of Indian civilisation in the Malaya Archi-
pelago.
Now let us examine the extent of the influence
of the Indian culture on some of the important islands
of the Archipelago in detail.
JAVA
No reliable history of the island is forthcoming,
since the first records, which are still untrustworthy,
date from the Islamic age. We are thus compelled
to have recourse to the accounts supplied by other
nations, and to the remains of buildings, which are still
to be found plentifully on the island. In any case,
Java seems to have been the focus of the Archipelago,so
far as civilisation was concerned, and to some extent
the political centre also, and it has retained this
position down to the present day. Our oldest in-
formation about Java can be traced to the Indian
traders, who had communications with the island
since perhaps the beginning of the Christian era.
But according to a prophetic chronology of the
Javanese, which is now in the possession of the
Susuhunan and is ascribed to the pen of Aji Jaya
Baya, the supposed arrival of Aji Saka did not take
place till after the year 1000. "What was first known
of Java," records the Chronicler, "was a range of hills
called Gunung Kendong, which extends along the
north and south coasts ; it was then that the island
first came into notice and at that period commenced
the Java era. After this, the Prince of Rom, sent
20,000 families to people Java ; but all of them
perished except 20 families who returned to Rom.
JAVA 65
In the following year, 20,000 families were sent to
Java by the Prince of Kling (India). These people
prospered and multiplied. They continued however
in an uncivilised state till the year 289, when the Almi-
ghty blessed them with a Prince, named Kano."*
But in the ancient Hindu chronicles no trace has
yet been found of a record of this first expedition
from Hindustan to Java.
The fact remains however that the ancient Indians
turned special attention to Java which was known
to them as Java-Dwipa or vulgo "the Island of Barley."
This name was given by the first Hindus to both
Sumatra and Java, on account of the discovery
of this cereal, which according to the tradition they
found growing there wild. Java-Dwipa does not how-
ever mean the "Island of the Barley," for a very simple
reason, and that is that barley will not grow there.
The name of the island, it is true, spelt Java in the
Sanskrit inscriptions discovered there, but it may be an
abridged form of Yavana, that is 'the barbarians. 'f
But although Java was by no means the nearest
island of the Archipelago, the fact that the Hindus
first went there, must certainly be due to the existence
there of rudimentary political societies whose rulers
protected the traders and whose inhabitants had
already passed that primitive stage when men have
no wants. The Indian merchants by transplanting
their culture to Java an d giving the princes an oppor-
tunity to increase their power and wealth through
trade, had no small share in the work of political
consolidation. We must treat as a mythical incar-
* Vide Sir S. Raffles' "History of Java," vol. ii, p. 73.
t Vide Col. Gerini, Researches on Ptolemy's Geography.
5
66 JAVA
nation of these influences, Aji-Saka, who stands
at the beginning of the native tradition. He, like
his predecessor Cannes in ancient Babylonia, gave
the Javanese their culture and religion, organised
their constitution, made laws and introduced the
system of writing.
The first immigrants to Java were worshippers
of Vishnu, who were followed later by Buddhists ;
these facts appear from the inscriptions and ruins
and are confirmed by the accounts of the Chinese
traveller, Fa Hian. The oldest traces of the Hindus
have been discovered in West Java, not far from
the modern Batavia. There must have been a king-
dom in that part between 400 and 500 A.D., whose
monarch was already favourable to the new culture and
religion. It is possible that the first Buddhists then
appeared on the island and acquired influence.
Important inscriptions dating from the 7th century
tell us of a prince of West Java, Aditya Dharma,
an enthusiastic Buddhist and a ruler of a kingdom
which comprised parts of the neighbouring Sumatra ;
he conquered the Javanese prince Siwaraga, whose
name leads us to conclude that he was a supporter
of the Brahmanical doctrines of Siva and built a mag-
nificent palace in a part of Java, which can no longer
be identified. We learn further from the Chinese
sources that there was a kingdom of Java, to which
28 petty princes owed allegiance, and that in the
year 674 a lady named Sima was on the throne.
Buddhism, supported by a brisk immigration from
India increased rapidly in power at this time, especially
in the central parts of Java, while in the east and
perhaps in the west also, Brahmanism held its
JAVA 67
own. In the eighth and ninth centuries there were
flourishing Buddhist kingdoms, whose power and
splendour may be conjectured from the magnificent
architectural remains, above all the ruins of temples
in the centre of the island, and from numerous ins-
criptions. If we may judge of the importance of
the states by the remains of the temples, the king-
dom of Buro-Budur must have surpassed all others.
For the greatest of all the temples in Java or even
in Asia is that of Boro-Budur.* Buddhism has in fact
left no such record anywhere else. In size, it is second
in the world only to the great Egyptian Pyramids,
but it is first in being far more costly and beautiful.
Moreover the amount of human labour expended
on the great Pyramids sinks into insignificance
when compared to that required to complete this
sculptured hill-temple in the interior of Java ; and,
as the Pyramids surpass the Vihara in height and
area and as everlasting monoliths, so do the Boro-
Budur surpass the Egyptian monuments in decorative
elaboration, in its three miles of alto and bas-reliefs
and in its thousands of statues. Indeed its artistic
value has no equal.
After the first quarter of the tenth century,
hardly any more temples or inscriptions seem to
have been erected in Central Java, a significant
sign of the complete decay of the national forces.
At the same time, the centre of gravity of political
power shifted to the east of the island. Inscriptions
of the eleventh century tell us of a king Er-Janga, who
by successful conquests brought a large part of Java
under his rule. He was however thoroughly imbued
* Vide Scheltema Monumental Java.
68 JAVA
with Indian culture, as may be concluded from the
increase of Sanskrit inscriptions in the East Java
after the beginning of the eleventh century. The next
centuries are somewhat obscure, from which may be
concluded a certain decline in trade and in the in-
fluence of Indian civilisation. This condition of things
lasted until the intercourse with Nearer India once
more revived in the kingdoms of Solo and Semarang.
This new Hinduistic age in which Brahmanism again
became prominent had a stimulating influence on the
east of the Island where the kingdom of Modyopahit
rose to be a mighty power in 1278 ; in the west, at
that time, the kingdom of Pajojaram was the fore-
most power.
But in spite of all the brilliance of the Hindu
States, the seeds of corruption were early sown in them.
The immense prosperity of the Javanese people had,
early in the ninth century, brought into the country
the Arab merchant, who ended in permanently settling
there, as the merchants of India had already done,
and who won converts for Islam in the different
parts of the Archipelago. It was characteristic
of this heroic age of Islam that the Arab merchants
had other aims beyond winning rich profits from
trade ; they tried to obtain political dominion by
means of religious proselytism. Apparently the
kingdom of Modyopahit, the bulwark of Hinduism,
had early been fixed upon as the goal of their efforts.
The comparatively feeble resistance of the Buddhistic
and Brahmanical doctrines is partly explained by
the fact that both were really comprehended by the
higher classes alone, while the masses clung to outward
forms only. The victory of Islam in Modyopahit
SUMATRA 69
soon had its counterpart in the other states of the
Island.
SUMATRA
Sumatra, as might be expected from its position,
probably came into contact with India and its culture
at a somewhat earlier period than Java, since the rich
pepper-growing districts on the Straits of Malacca
were the first to create a systematic commerce.
It is quite in harmony with these conditions that
the districts on the northern extremity of modern
Achin, were the earliest to show traces of Hindu in-
fluence and consequently the beginnings of an orga-
nised national life ; thence this influence spread
further to the inland region, where signs of it are to
be found even at the present day among the Battaks.
The older kingdoms of the northern extremity were
Poli and Sumatra. In Java, it was the culture and
religion of the Hindus, which made themselves
chiefly felt, while the political power remained in
the hands of the natives. In North Sumatra, on the
contrary, the immigrants from India seemed
completely to have assumed the lead in the State
and to have created a feudal kingdom quite in the
Indian style. While the Indian civilisation thus
struck root in the north, Southern Sumatra by its
geographical position has always been fated to be
in some degree dependent on the populous and
powerful Java. In 1377, Southern Sumatra was
conquered by the Javanese and for a time it belonged
to the kings of Modyopahit. Palembang was then
colonised by the Javanese immigrants. About the
70 BALI
beginning of the sixteenth century, the political
supremacy of the Hindus seems to have been broken
up and to have given place to Mahommedanism.*
BALI.
Of all the districts of the Malaya Archipelago, the
small Sunda Islands play the least conspicuous part
in history. Devoid of any political unity they
stagnated in their isolation, until foreign immigration
introduced a higher type of social unit and small
kingdoms sprang into existence here and there along
their coasts. Bali affords a solitary exception to the
general rule. The island, although profoundly in-
fluenced in ancient times by Java, frequently enjoyed
political independence. But when the Brahman
states of Java increased in strength towards the
close of the first millennium of the Christian era,
Bali was also a state with Hindu culture. Only
recently, a splendid bas-relief has been discovered
in the Temple of Kausamba in Kelungkung, in
south-east of Bali, depicting scenes from Hindu
Mythology. (It is now in the Ethnographical
Museum at Berlin). Ugrasena ruled there in 923
and in 1103 another prince Jayapangu is mentioned.
Bali later formed a part of the kingdom of Modyo-
pahit. It was impossible for Islam to convert the
Balinese, who at the time when they formed a united
people actually assumed the aggressive, oppressed
the Mohommedan Sassaks on the temporarily con-
quered Lombok and menaced Sumbawa. Brah-
Vide Dr. Schurtz in The World's History Vol. iii.
BORNEO 71
tnanism defied its rival in this case at least, and
iias lasted in Bali down to the present day.
BORNEO.
Borneo, the largest of the islands of the Malaya
Archipelago, has not hitherto in the course of history
attained anything like the importance to which its
size should entitle it. A glance at the geographical
features of this clumsy shaped island, which is sur-
rounded on almost every side by damp unhealthy
lowlands, satisfactorily accounts for this destiny.
But the south coast of the island was influenced to a
remarkable degree by its proximity to Java. We
have not only remains of buildings and idols, but also
literary evidence to prove that the Hindu kingdom
of Java affected both by conquest and by example
the adjoining parts of Borneo. Thus a large Javanese
immigration was followed by the introduction of Hindu
creeds and Hinduism flourished till Mahommedanism
struck root in 1600.
Indonesia, therefore, from the first day that
the ancient Hindus reached and ventured on its
more or less unwelcome shores, down to the
present, has played the part of an intermediary
from the point of view of anthropology, commerce,
religion and more especially of culture. This peculiar
property finds its truest expression, so far as the
special history of this part of the world is concerned,
in the formation of a Hindu-Moslem sphere of civil-
isation, which embraced the entire north-west of the
Indian Ocean, and whose strongest representative we
see before us in Islam. The commercial intercourse
72 CONCLUSION
has never died out, since the time when it was first
started ; the nations alone who maintained it have
changed. The present culture of the Archipelago
has grown up under the influence of this constant
intercourse ; but the oldest conditions, which are so
important for the history of mankind, have nowhere
been left unimpaired.
CONCLUSION
From the references in indigenous and foreign
contemporary literature, it is apparent therefore that
India at all times has been famous for its domestic and
foreign trade. In the Greek history, we find definite
mention of the Indian merchants ; in the early days
of the Roman Empire, India was a great commer-
cial centre for the merchants of Italy and Egypt, as
it was at a much earlier period for all Asiatic races
from Phoenicia in the West to China in the East.
In more than one epoch, the resources of India,
natural and industrial, as well as intellectual, have
made the wealth of great empires. Its delicate
tissues, its marvellous colours and dyes, its porcelains
and pottery, its works on metals and ivory, its spices
and precious stones, its dainty essences and perfumes,
have not only been the wonder and delight of
Europe, but in no slight degree helped in the revival
of its art. But its scholars did not travel. Only
a great religious and moral inspiration, like Buddhism,
could rouse Hindu thought to seek for geographical
expansion. Only here and there we find traces of
embassies, sent for political objects to the Courts
of China and to the Empires of Rome and to the
CONCLUSION 73
Monarchies of Egypt. Yet from the time of Alex-
ander downwards the intellectual life of India was
profoundly felt throughout the ancient world.
Greece, Persia, Egypt and China even, went to sit
at the feet of those serene dreamers on the banks
of the Indus and the Ganges under the shades of
the banyan trees ; and there they marvelled at the
power of philosophy to achieve ideal virtue. And what
treasures of European fable, legend and mythic lore
further testify to the indebtedness of Europe to India,
in the sphere of imagination and fancy ; the Magic
Mirror, the Golden Egg, the Purse of Fortunatus, the
Cap of Invisibility. Ex Oriente Lux !
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