Page:Monier Monier-Williams - Indian Wisdom.djvu/20

xvi employed in Sanskṛit literature and recognized by the whole Sanskṛitic race, more particularly in Bengal and the Dekhan, is Bhārata or Bhārata-varsha—that is to say—'the country of king Bharata ,' who must have ruled over a large extent of territory in ancient times (see pp. 371, 419 of this volume).

It will not be supposed that in our vast Eastern Empire we have to deal with a single race or even with many merely ordinary races. We are not there brought in contact with savage tribes who melt away before the superior force and intelligence of Europeans. Rather are we placed in the midst of great and ancient peoples, who, some of them tracing back their origin to the same stock as ourselves, attained a high degree of civilization when our forefathers were barbarians, and had a polished language, a cultivated literature, and abstruse systems of philosophy, centuries before English existed even in name.

The population of India, according to the census of 1872, amounts to at least 240 millions. An assemblage of beings so immense does