HISTORY OF INDIA:

HINDU, BUDDHIST, AND BRAHMANICAL.

BY

J. TALBOYS WHEELER,

SECRETARY TO THE CHIEF COMMISSIONER OF BRITISH BURMA; LATE ASSISTANT SECRETARY TO THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA IN THE FOREIGN DEPARTMENT.

AUTHOR OF "THE GEOGRAPHY OF HERODOTUS," &c., &c.

LONDON:

TRÜBNER & CO., 57 & 59, LUDGATE HILL.

MDCCCLXXIY.

{The right of Translation is reserved.}

TO THE MEMORY OF

RICHARD SOUTHWELL BOURKE SIXTH EARL OF MAYO

MAJOR-GENERAL SIR HENRY M. DURAND

AND

PROFESSOR THEODOR GOLDSTÜCKER

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED.

PREFACE.

THE present volume is complete in itself. It tells the history of India from a Hindú, Buddhist, and Brahmanical point of view. It starts from the remotest antiquity, and reaches right down to the appearance of the English in the Eastern seas. It does not deal with the Mussulman conquest or the Mussulman empire; as those subjects can scarcely be treated thoroughly, until the Hindú people have been well brought upon the stage; and although the history of Mussulman India has an intrinsic value and importance of its own, which entitle it to separate consideration, it throws little or no light upon the religious and social development of the Hindús. Whilst, however, the present work is complete in itself, it also forms the third volume of the history of India, the publication of which was begun as far back as 1867. It may therefore be advisable to describe more precisely the plan which was originally adopted for preparing a complete history of India, and the progress which has since been made towards its completion.

The principal materials from which to construct a purely

1 History of India from the Earliest Ages, Vol. I., comprising the Vedic period and Mahá Bhárata. Trübner & Co., 1867. Ibid., Vol. II., comprising the Rámáyana and Brahmanic Period, i. e. the Laws of Manu. Trübner & Co., 1869.