HINDU PERIOD. The Aryans (q.v.) entered the Punjab perhaps as early as B.C. 2000. They came from the Iranian country, apparently by two routes, through the mountain passes in Southern Afghanistan and by way of Chitral, and gradually forcing their way east and south, expelled or subdued the aborigines, such as the Dravidians, and occupied the entire territory north of the Vindhya 3,1ountains. There are but few historic allusions in the ear liest part of this period, although the Rig-Veda (q.v.) mentions a battle of ten kings against Sodas, King of the Trltsu clan, evidently a tribal war, and contains a number of references to Aryan victories over the aboriginal tribes. Tho epics of the Mahabhfiruta and the RrTonagatm con tain legends of wars which must have been of much importance. The former epic narrates al most as its main theme the strife between the Kurus and Panchalas, both on the Ganges, while the latter tells of the war waged by the Kosalas of Oudh against the demoniac armies of Lankia, supposed to be Ceylon. By the close -of the period described in the former epic there were ten great Hindu kingdoms: Magadha (South Behar), Align (West Bengal), Van ga (East Bengal), Kalinga (Orissa), Avanti (Malwa), Saurashtra (Gujarat). and the king doms of the Andhras (Deccan), the Cholas (Coromandel), the Cheras (Malabar), and the Pandyas (extreme . Of these ilIagadha became the chief before the dawn of authentic history in India. The earliest historic Indian date thus far known is u.c. 557, the reputed birth-year of Buddha. Bimbsara (q.v.) of the Saisunagar dynasty began to rule soon after this (died 485 n.c.), and this line reigned until the early part of the fourth century. In n.c. 315 during the reign of the Naurya king Chandragupta, called by the Greeks Sandracottus (q.v.), who brought all Northern India under the sway of Magadlm, India for the first time in the historic period came into relations with the Occident. The invasion of Alexander the Great was to be the forerunner of a long series of inroads. which were to end two thousand years later in the final surrender of India to the West. The stay of Alexander in India was short. but Sandracottus entered into an alliance with the Greek ruler of Persia and Baet•ia. Seleueus Ni cator, whose daughter he married, and to whose ambassador, Megasthenes (q.v.). we are indebted for our earliest non-Indian information on Hin dustan. The great Sandracottus was succeeded by his son Bindusara i II B.C. 201, and his grand son, Moka. whose reign lasted approximately from B.C. 259 to 222. is famous as the royal promulgator of Buddhism. A series of weak kings followed, and the foreign influence on India steadily gained strength. A half-century after Agoka's time the (1r:cm-Bact•ian dynasty ex tended its power over the Upper Ganges and the Punjab, only to be driven out by the Indo Seythians about n.c. 100. The greatest monarch
of this line was Kanishka. a Kushana king. who founded the Saka (or Salivahana) era (q.v.) in A.D. 78. The northwestern (Kabul) Indo Scythian princes gave way in the second century A . D . to the western (Gujarat) Kshat•apas, who in turn were overthrown by the Guptas toward the end of the third century. The name of Chandra gupta 1. (about 319) is one of the most impor tant in this dynasty. He made his house supreme over practically all Northern India, and his son, Samudragupta, was equally powerful. The power of the Gupta. was finally broken in the early part of the sixth century, having previously been weakened by invasions of the Huns. During the Gupta period the Hindus flourished in arts and in religion, and the so-called Renaissance of San skrit literature came in the reign of Vikrama ditya (about 455-480). It was about this time that Buddhism attained its acme in India. To this fact we are indebted for some of our best. information regarding the condition of the land. Chinese travelers, notahly Fa-Hien (40(I), Hionen Thsang (64:3), and 1-Tsing (671). came to India seeking for a knowledge of Buddha's teachings in their purity, and the records which they left form the only non-Indian information on Hindustan which we possess from the time of the Greeks until the coining of the Arabs. In the first half of the sixth century lIarshavardh ann. who was the hero of the one historical romance in Sanskrit, extended his sway over all Northern India, even conquering Nepal. From this time the Hindu power began gradu ally to decline. Of the succeeding dynasties the most important were the Chalnkja and Chola, but the day of native monarchy over India was past. Petty kings came and went, warred with each other, and by their lack of harmony helped to prepare the way for the second great epoch of India, the Mohammedan period. The subject of early Hindu eras and dates is very involved, and only the chief epochs can be given here. Hindu chronology begins with the Kaliyuga (q.v.), B.C. 3102: Chandragupta established the .11aurya dynasty n.c. 315; Agoka was crowned n.c. 259; the Samvat (q.v.) era (attributed wrongly to Vi kramaditya, who lived much later) begins B.C. 57. This is the chief era of India. The Saka (q.v.) or Salvahana era begins A.D. 78; the Gup ta or Vallabhi era A.D. 319; the Harshavardhana era A.D. 606: the modern Burmese era. A.D. 639. According to a new theory of Bhandarkar (not yet accepted by scholars generally). the Saka and following dates have to be inereased by '200.