Page:A History of Civilisation in Ancient India based on Sanscrit Literature Vol 1.djvu/60

12 about the eleventh century B.C. Janaka, the king of the Videhas, gave a start to the Upanishads; we may, therefore, suppose the Videhas and the Kosalas to have flourished about 1200 to 1000 B.C., as the Kurus and the Panchâlas flourished about 1400 to 1200 B.C.

For the sake of convenience we will call this second period the Epic Period. It was the period when the nations described in the national epics of India lived and fought; when the Kurus and the Panchâlas, the Kosalas and the Videhas, held sway along the valley of the Ganges.

The Third Epoch is, perhaps, the most brilliant period of Hindu history. It was in this period that the Aryans issued out of the Gangetic valley, spread themselves far and wide, and introduced Hindu civilisation and founded Hindu kingdoms as far as the southernmost limits of India. Magadha or South Behar, which was already known to the Hindus in the Epic Period, was completely Hinduised in the Third Epoch; and the young and powerful kingdom founded here soon eclipsed all the ancient kingdoms of the Gangetic valley. Buddhism spread from Magadha to surrounding kingdoms, and Chandragupta, the contemporary of Alexander the Great, brought the whole of Northern India, from the Punjab to Behar, under the rule of Magadha. With this great political event, viz., the consolidation of all Northern India under one great empire, the Third Epoch ends and the Fourth Epoch begins.

Aryan colonists penetrated to Bengal and introduced Hindu religion and civilisation among the aborigines. The kingdoms founded in the south won greater distinction. The Andhras founded a powerful kingdom in the Deccan, and developed great schools of learning. Further south, the Aryans came in contact with the old Dravidian civilisation. The more perfect Hindu