# History of India/Volume 2

Benares, the Sacred City of India
Benares, with its carved and golden temples, its myriad minarets, and its hallowed waters of the Ganges, is the Holy City of India, the Eternal Rome of the Brahmans, and the Mecca of the Hindus. To bathe in the Ganges is to wash away one's sins, as in the River Jordan, and to die on its bank is to attain heaven. Thousands of pilgrims travel from every part of India to be blessed in the Golden Temple of Benares and to be sprinkled with the consecrated water of its Well of Knowledge. It is easy, therefore, to understand how important a part Benares has played throughout all periods of India's history.
HISTORY of INDIA
Edited by
A. V. WILLIAMS JACKSON, Ph.D.,LL.D.
Professor of Indo-Iranian Languages in Columbia University
VOLUME II
From the Sixth Century B.C to the Mohammedan Conquest, Including the Invasion of Alexander the Great
By
VINCENT A. SMITH, M.A., M.R.A.S., F.R.N.S.
Late of the Indian Civil Service, Author of "Asoka, the Buddhist Emperor of India"
LONDON
THE GROLIER SOCIETY PUBLISHERS
Edition Nationale
Limited to One Thousand Copies
for England and America
No. 338
Copyright, 1906, by
The Grolier Society
Edinbora Press
PREFACE BY THE EDITOR
This volume covers the interesting period from the century in which Buddha appeared down to the first centuries after the Mohammedans entered India, or, roughly speaking, from 600 b. c. to 1200 a.d. During this long era India, now Aryanized, was brought into closer contact with the outer world. The invasion of Alexander the Great gave her at least a touch of the West; the spread of Buddhism and the growth of trade created new relations with China and Central Asia; and, toward the close of the period, the great movements which had their origin in Arabia brought her under the influences which affected the East historically after the rise of Islam.
In no previous work will the reader find so thorough and so comprehensive a description as Mr. Vincent Smith has given of Alexander's inroad into India and of his exploits which stirred, even if they did not deeply move, the soul of India; nor has there existed hitherto so full an account of the great rulers, Chandragupta, Asoka, and Harsha, each of whom made famous the age in which he lived. The value of the book is further ​enhanced by a historical sketch of the mediaeval kingdoms of the North and the Deccan and by a brief outline of the history of Southern Hindustan, a section to which attention should be devoted by the historian who wishes fully to understand India's present condition as well as her past. Throughout the work the author has taken advantage of every available source, whether literary, traditional, archaeological, monumental, epigraphic, or numismatic, including also the narratives of the early Chinese pilgrims who visited India and whose narratives yield important historic results.
The plan of the series has necessitated certain changes from the original edition of the author's work so as to bring the volume into closer accord with the others of this History; to these alterations Mr. Smith, like the other writers, has courteously consented, a concession which I, as editor, desire to acknowledge with appreciation. It was necessary, for example, to omit the foot-notes and marginal references, one or two maps, and some of the longer appendices that were of a strictly technical character, in order to bring the volume within the compass required. In no case, I believe, has anything been eliminated that was essential to the main theme, namely, the continuous story of India's development during the period indicated. The reader who may desire to pursue the subject further and devote attention more specifically to minute details will consult Mr. Smith's larger volume, which abounds in references.
In choosing the illustrations for the history of this period, as of the others, much care has been taken and ​an endeavour has been made to add to the existing material by including photographs from my own collection made in India. Other persons also have kindly aided in carrying out this part of the plan as designed, by granting permission to reproduce pictures which were their special property.
Among the obligations which both the publishers and myself most cordially recognize is an indebtedness to Mr. Holland Thompson, A. M., Instructor in History in the College of the City of New York, who rendered generous assistance in connection with the preparation of the text to conform with the needs of the series, and for aid in making the index.
With these words I present the volume, recalling the reader once more from the present to the past, to the early ages of India before and after the Christian era.
A. V. Williams Jackson.
CONTENTS
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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