Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/41

 INTRODUCTION. ii the Aryan stock in Central Asia. We are tempted to ask whether the Pandavas, who conquered in the great strife, were not a confederacy of hostile tribes, headed by a band of warriors of mixed or non-Aryan descent. Their helper and counsellor, KrishnS, is a divinity unknown to the early Aryans, and with him as an incarnation of Vishnu, the Siva, and Brahma, of modern Hinduism, take the place of the older gods. As if to mark the difference of which the warriors themselves felt the existence, they distinguished themselves, by name, as belonging to a Lunar race, distinct from, and generally antagonistic to, the Solar race, which was the proud distinction of the purer and earlier Aryan settlers in India. 1 By about B.C. 700, we again find a totally different state of affairs in India. The Aryans no longer exist as a separate nationality, and neither the Solar nor the Lunar race are the rulers of the earth. The Brahmans have become a priestly caste, and share the power with the Kshatriyas, a race of far less purity of descent. The Vai^yas, as merchants and husbandmen, have become a power, and even the Sudras are acknowledged as a part of the body politic ; and though not mentioned in the Scriptures the Nagas, or Snake people, had become an influential part of the population. They are first mentioned in the Mahabharata, where they play a most important part in causing the death of Parikshit, which led to the great sacrifice for the destruction of the Nagas of Taksha^ila by Janamejaya, which practically closes the history of the time. Destroyed, however, they were not, for we find Naga dynasties ruling in various parts of Central India and Rajputana from the 7th century B.C., till at least the 4th century A.D. 2 Although Buddhism was first taught probably by one belong- ing to the Solar race, and of Aryan blood, and though its first disciples were Brahmans, it had as little affinity with the religion of the Vedas as Christianity had with the Pentateuch, and its fate was the same. The one religion was taught by one of Jewish ex- traction to the Jews ; but it was ultimately rejected by them, and adopted by the Gentiles, who had no affinity of race or religion with the inhabitants of Judaea. Though meant originally, no doubt, for Aryans, the Buddhist religion was ultimately rejected by the Brahmans, who were consequently eclipsed and superseded by it for nearly a thousand years ; and we hear little of them and their religion till they rise again at the court of the great Gupta 1 Orientalists have expressed very varying opinions as to the historical teachings of the epics. See Weber, ' On the Ramayana,' etc. 2 The Naga or Karkota dynasty of Kashmir ruled as late as from about the beginning of the 7th till the middle of the gth century.