Page:A General Sketch of Political History from the Earlist Times.djvu/328

 316 THE BOURBON AGE old religion reasserted itself, taking shape in the Hinduism which is still dominant; to the multitude, a materialistic polytheism worshipping countless grotesque deities j to the few, a subtle and absorbing philosophy; to all, a faith having not a few precepts or ordinances which can be broken only at infinite risk to body and soul. We cannot attempt any examination or summary of the Buddhism by which Brahmanism was temporarily eclipsed. 500 B.C. to But for a time it destroyed the predominance of 300 B.C. the caste system, and there arose kingdoms and empires under princes who were neither Brahmans nor Rajputs. About the time when Buddhism was born, the north-west of India came in contact with the newly risen power beyond the mountains; Cyrus possibly, Darius certainly, sent expeditions which penetrated into the Punjab, and claimed sovereignty — in other words, tribute. Herodotus describes an ' Indian ' con- tingent — not at all recognisable — as present with the great army of Xerxes when he invaded Hellas. Alexander the Great broke through the barrier, and met with a stubborn resistance in the land of the Five Rivers, but his troops would follow him no further. The Greeks did not at once evacuate the country completely, but never exercised more than a nominal sway. Not long after we have authentic knowledge of the great kingdom of Magadha, the prototype of the empires which had their seat at the city of Delhi on the Jumna, the most westerly of the Ganges river-group. In Magadha reigned the great prince Chandragupta, with whom Seleucus found it better to establish friendly relations Asoka, than to wage war. Practically, he was monarch or 250 B.C. emperor of all Hindustan (the northern half of India) ; and of all ancient rulers in India the greatest was his grandson Asoka, who ruled between 270 and 230 B.C. He was a prince of the type of Alfred the Great or St. Louis, who won the reverence and even the submission of his neighbours by the pure nobility of his character no less than by his wisdom. A Scythian invasion and occupation of the Punjab in the first century B.C. is held to have left distinct traces among the peoples of that region. But Indian history relapses into a general vague- ness. A great Maghada kingdom is again distinguishable after