Sundays and Saint days: Portuguese ladies Social condition of the Portuguese soldiers Demoralization resulting from mixed marriages Conversions effected by the Roman Catholic missionaries Labours of the Jesuits. Relapses into heathenism Establishment of an Inquisition: orientalization of Portu- Lower Bengal desolated by the pirates of Chittagong the history of Mussulman, THE history of India from the earliest period to CHAPTER I. the present day may be mapped out into the three Three eras in eras of Hindú, Mussulman, and British. The Hindu India: the era commences with the dawn of history. The and the British. Mussulman era commences with the invasions of the followers of the Prophet under Mahmúd of Cabul in the middle of the eleventh century after Christ. The British era commences with the conquests of Robert Clive about the middle of the eighteenth century. These eras are useful as furnishing chronological data for the great political revolutions which characterize the history of India. The struggle between the Mussulmans and Hindús commenced in the same century which saw the conquest of England by the Normans. The overthrow of Mussulman imperialism, and establishment of the British as a political and paramount power, were carried out during the single reign of George the Third. But Hinduism laps the Mussulman era, and both Hinduism and Islam overlap the British era; and the conflicting ideas, traditions, and aspirations of these two hostile camps of Brahma and Mohammed ら CHAPTER I. are still the main characteristics of the modern history of India, although they have been too often and too generally ignored. Four elements in the Hindú the Brahmanic,' But the Hindú era, which is the first in the era: the Vedic, order of time, is also the first in importance; and the Buddhist, that importance is increasing day by day. The manical revival. Hindús of the present generation have been moulded and the Brah into their existing form by their past history; and it is by their past history alone that the European can apprehend their modern culture. Moreover, amongst Hindús, and indeed amongst oriental nations generally, religion is their only nationality; and zeal for religion is their only conception of patriotism. The study of oriental religions thus assumes a vast political significance; and to be carried out effectually it necessitates a familiarity with the people themselves, as well as an acquaintance with their sacred writings. From a remote antiquity four conflicting elements have been at work in forming the national life of the Hindús; and at any moment either of these elements, or a fresh combination of these elements, may be suddenly imbued with a new-born enthusiam, and overflow the land like a flood of lava. Each has dominated during a particular age; and thus the history of the Hindú era may be divided into four periods, namely, the Vedic, the Brahmanic, the Buddhist, and the Brahmanic revival. But all four elements have been intermingling in the Hindú mind from a very ancient period, and all are more or less intermingling now.1 1 The term Hindú era is here employed in its general sense, as comprehending the whole of the ante-Mussulman period, and in a wider sense the whole range of Indian history. The term, however, may be more strictly applied to the history of the people before they were brought under the influence of Brahmanism or Buddhism; and in this latter sense it has been used on the title page. Buddhism, B.C. 623-543, the first chronolo point in the his tory of India. The advent of Buddhism is the first stand-point CHAPTER I. in the annals of India. It forms, in fact, the only BB true commencement of Indian history. Its founder, gical standGôtama Buddha, is said to have been born B.C. 623, and to have died B.C. 543 at the age of eighty. This chronology is open to future discussion, but it may be accepted as a platform from whence to review the past and commence the history of the future. The life of Gôtama Buddha is preceded by a dim vista of unrecorded ages, which is peopled more by creations of fancy than by mortal men. The heroes and heroines of epic tradition, the gods and goddesses of sacred legend, occupy all the foreground; whilst glimpses of the general masses of the population are but few and far between. But in the sixth century before the Christian era Buddhism dawns upon a world of reality and humanity. It represents the ancient people of India, not as mere phantasmagoria, distorted and exaggerated by the imaginations of bards and priests; but as living men and women, occupied with all the cares of existence, yet seeking to work out the main problems of the universe; to discover whether there is not a substantial religion, a form of holiness far beyond the conventional worship of the gods, or propitiation of unseen powers, which will secure the highest happiness in this life, and in the life to come. The history of the part which Buddhism has been called upon to play in the great work of religious development in India is thus replete with lessons for all time; but before attempting to indicate its specialities, it will be necessary to take a retrospective view of the progress of religious thought in this vast peninsula CHAPTER I. during the dim and remote period which preceded it, and which is generally known as Vedic and Brahmanic times. Age preceding Buddhism: distinction be The first important feature of the Hindú era, is tween the Vedic the broad distinction which originally existed between the Vedic and Brahmanic elements in the and Brahmanic periods. early history. It will be seen hereafter that the Vedic Aryans, who colonized the Punjab in a remote antiquity, were worshippers of the spirits or elements of the universe as gods and goddesses, and invoked those deities in old Sanskrit verses known as Vedic hymns. At some subsequent period the Bráhmans appeared upon the scene, and converted the old Vedic deities into representations or manifestations of the supreme spirit, whom they worshipped as Brahma. At the same time the Bráhmans effected other changes in Vedic ideas and usages, which will be found invested with a deep significance. The Vedic Aryans had neither temples, idols, nor rigid caste distinctions. They worshipped their deities as living existences; and they apparently offered up their own sacrifices and invocations, and performed their own domestic rites, without the aid of any caste of priests whatever. The Bráhmans, on the contrary, appear to have encouraged the construction of temples, and to have set up images or idols, which were worshipped individually and collectively as representatives of the one supreme being. The Bráhmans also seem to have distributed the people into castes; or at any rate to have recognized and sanctioned such caste distinctions; and they arrogated to themselves the position of an exclusive and hereditary priesthood, through whom alone the people were to present their sacri |