The early history of India, from 600 B. C. to the Muhammadan conquest

Front matter

ft* jf

PRINCETON, N. J.

Purchased by the Hamill Missionary Fund.

Preface

The plan and limitations of this book have been explained so fully in the Introduction that little more need be said by way of preface. The room for difference of opinion on many of the subjects treated is so great that I cannot expect my views on controverted points to meet with universal acceptance ; and the complexity of my undertaking forbids me to hope that positive errors, justly open to censure, have been avoided altogether ; but 1 trust that critics will be prepared to concede the amount of indulgence which may be granted legitimately to the work of a pioneer.

The devotion of a disproportionately large space to the memorable invasion of Alexander the Great is due to the exceptional interest of the subject, which, so far as I know, has not been treated adequately in any modern book. The extreme brevity of the fourteenth and fifteenth chapters, dealing with the mediaeval kingdoms of the north and the Deccan, which may be open to adverse criticism, is attributable to the limited interest of merely local histories. In the final chapter an attempt has been made to give an intelligible outline of the history of the South, so far as it has been ascertained. The story of the Dravidian nations seems to me deserving of more attention than it generally receives.

The presentation of cumbrous and unfamiliar

iii

]V

PREFACE

Oriental names must always be a difficulty for a writer on Indian history. I have endeavoured to secure reasonable uniformity of spelling without pedantry. The system of transliteration followed in the notes and appendices is substantially that used in the Indian A ntiquary ; while in the text long vowels only are marked where necessary, and all other diacritical signs are discarded.

Vowels have values as in Italian ; except the short a, which is pronounced like u in but, when with stress, and like A in America, when without stress. The consonants are to be pronounced as in English ; and ch, consequently, is represented in French by tch, and in German by tsch ; similarly, j is equivalent to the French dj and the German dscli. The international symbol c for the English ch, as in church, which has been adopted by the Asiatic Societies, may have some advantages in purely technical publications ; but its use results in such monstra liorrenda as Cac for Chach, and is unsuitable in a work intended primarily for English and Indian readers.

I have much pleasure in acknowledging the receipt of help of various kinds from the following gentlemen : — M. Edouard Chavannes, Professeur au College de France; Mr. J. S. Cotton, editor of the Indian Imperial Gazetteer ; Mr. William Crooke ; Professor Rhys Davids ; Dr. J. F. Fleet, C.I.E. ; Dr. Rudolf Hoernle, C.I.E. ; Mr. James Kennedy; M. SylvainLevi; Professor E. J. Rapson; and Mr. R. Sewell.

Contents

CHAP. PAGE

I. 1. Introduction ....... 1

2. The Sources of Indian History ... 7

Chapter I

I. INTRODUCTION

The illustrious Elphinstone, writing in 1839, observed Elphinthat in Indian history ‘ no date of a public event can be fixed Cowelfon before the invasion of Alexander; and no connected relation the Hindu of the national transactions can be attempted until after the Penod‘ Mahometan conquest.’ Professor Cowell, when commenting upon this dictum, twenty-seven years later, begged his readers to bear it in mind during the whole of the Hindu period ; assigning as his reason for this caution the fact that ‘it is only at those points where other nations came into contact with the Hindus, that we are able to settle any details accurately V

Although the first clause of Elphinstone’s proposition, if strictly interpreted, still remains true — no date in Indian history prior to Alexander’s invasion being determinable with absolute precision — modern research has much weakened the force of the observation, and has enabled scholars to fix a considerable number of dates in the pre-Alexandrine history of India with approximate accuracy, sufficient for most purposes.

But when the statement that a connected narrative of Results of events prior to the Muhammadan conquest cannot be pre- research pared is examined in the light of present knowledge, the immense progress in the recovery of the lost history of India made during the last forty years becomes apparent. The researches of a multitude of scholars working in various fields have disclosed an unexpected wealth of materials for the reconstruction of ancient Indian history ; and the necessary preliminary studies of a technical kind have been carried so far that the moment seems to have arrived for taking stock of the accumulated stores of knowledge. It now appears 1 Elphinstone, History of India, ed. Cowell, 5th ed., p. 11.

SMITH B

Introduction

Political

history.

Kast and West.

to be practicable to exhibit the results of antiquarian studies in the shape of a ‘ connected relation ’ ; not less intelligible to the ordinary educated reader than Elphinstone’s narrative of the transactions of the Muhammadan period.

The first attempt to present such a narrative of the leading events in Indian political history for eighteen centuries is made in this book, which is designedly confined almost exclusively to the relation of political vicissitudes. A sound framework of dynastic annals must be provided before the story of Indian literature and art can be told aright. Although literary and artistic problems are touched on very lightly in this volume, the references made will suffice, perhaps, to convince the reader that the key is often to be found in the accurate chronological presentation of dynastic facts.

European students, whose attention has been directed almost exclusively to the Graeco-Roman foundation of modern civilization, may be disposed to agree with the German philosopher in the belief that ‘Chinese, Indian, and Egyptian antiquities are never more than curiosities 1 but, however well founded that opinion may have been in Goethe’s day, it can no longer command assent. The researches of orientalists during the last hundred years have established many points of contact between the ancient East and the modern West ; and no Hellenist can now afford to profess complete ignorance of the Babylonian and Egyptian culture which forms the bed-rock of European institutions. Even China has been brought into touch with Europe ; while the languages, literature, art, and philosophy of the West have been proved to be connected by innumerable bonds with those of India. Although the names of even the greatest monarchs of ancient India are at present unfamiliar to the general reader, and awaken few echoes in the minds of any save specialists, it is not unreasonable to hope that an orderly presentation of the ascertained facts of ancient Indian history may be of interest to a larger circle than that

1 The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe, No. 325, in Bailey Saunders’s translation.

ALEXANDER THE GREAT of professed orientalists, and that, as the subject becomes more familiar to the reading public, it will be found no less worthy of attention than more familiar departments of historical study. A recent Indian author justly observes that ‘ India suffers to-day in the estimation of the world more through that world’s ignorance of the achievements of the heroes of Indian history than through the absence or insignificance of such achievements1.’ The following pages may serve to prove that the men of old time in India did deeds worthy of remembrance, and deserving of rescue from the oblivion in which they have been buried for so many centuries.

The section of this work which deals with the invasion Alexander of Alexander the Great may claim to make a special appeal the Great, to the interest of readers trained in the ordinary course of classical studies ; and the subject has been treated accordingly with much fullness of detail. The existing English accounts of Alexander’s marvellous campaign, among which that of Thirlwall may claim, perhaps, the highest place, treat the story rather as an appendix to the history of Greece than as part of that of India, and fail to make full use of the results of the labours of modern geographers and archaeologists. In this volume the campaign is discussed as a memorable episode in the history of India, and an endeavour has been made to collect all the rays of light from recent investigation and to focus them upon the narratives of ancient authors.

The author’s aim is to present the story of ancient India, The so far as practicable, in the form of a connected narrative, s

based upon the most authentic evidence available ; to relate facts, however established, with impartiality : and to discuss the problems of history in a judicial spirit. He has striven to realize, however imperfectly, the ideal expressed in the words of Goethe : — •

‘The historian’s duty is to separate the true from the false, the certain from the uncertain, and the doubtful from

1 C. N. K. Aiyar, Sri Sankaracharya, his Life and Times, p. iv.

INTRODUCTION

Value of tradition.

Necessity for criticism.

that which cannot be accepted. . . . Every investigator must before all things look upon himself as one who is summoned to serve on a jury. He has only to consider how far the statement of the case is complete and clearly set forth by the evidence. Then he draws his conclusion and gives his vote, whether it be that his opinion coincides with that of the foreman or not V

The application of these principles necessarily involves the wholesale rejection of mere legend as distinguished from tradition, and the omission of many picturesque anecdotes, mostly folk-lore, which have clustered round the names of the mighty men of old in India.

The historian of the remote past of any nation must be content to rely much upon tradition as embodied in literature, and to acknowledge that the results of his researches, when based upon traditionary materials, are inferior in certainty to those obtainable for periods of which the facts are attested by contemporary evidence. In India, with very few exceptions, contemporary evidence of any kind is not available before the time of Alexander ; but critical examination of records dated much later than the events referred to can extract from them testimony which may be regarded with a high degree of probability as traditionally transmitted from the sixth or, perhaps, the seventh century b. c.

Even contemporary evidence, when it is available for later periods, cannot be accepted without criticism. The flattery of courtiers, the vanity of kings, and many other clouds which obscure the absolute truth, must be recognized and allowed for. Nor is it possible for the writer of a history, however great may be his respect for the objective fact, to eliminate altogether his own personality. Every kind of evidence, even the most direct, must reach the reader, when in narrative form, as a reflection from the mirror of the writer’s mind, with the liability to unconscious distortion. In the following pages the author has endeavoured to exclude the subjective element so far as possible, to make no state-

1 The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe, Nos, 453, 543.

UNITY OF INDIA ment of fact without authority, and to give the authority, that is to say, the evidence, for every fact alleged.

But no obligation to follow authority in the other sense of the word has been recognized, and the narrative often assumes a form which appears to be justified by the evidence, although opposed to the views stated in well-known books by authors of repute. Indian history has been too much the sport of credulity and hypothesis, inadequately checked by critical judgement of evidence or verification of fact ; and ‘the opinion of the foreman,1 to use Goethe’s phrase, cannot be implicitly followed.

Although this Avork purports to relate the Early History Unity of India, the title must be understood with certain limita- Indiations. India, encircled as she is by seas and mountains, is indisputably a geographical unit, and, as such, is rightly designated by one name. Her type of civilization, too, has many features which differentiate it from that of all other regions of the world, while they are common to the whole country, or rather continent, in a degree sufficient to justify its treatment as a unit in the history of human, social, and intellectual development.

But the complete political unity of India under the control of a paramount power, wielding unquestioned authority, is a thing of yesterday, barely a century old. The most notable of her rulers in the olden time cherished the ambition of universal Indian dominion, and severally attained it in a greater or less degree. But not one of them attained it completely, and this failure implies a lack of unity in political history which renders the task of the historian difficult.

The same difficulty besets the historian of Greece still more pressingly ; but, in that case, Avith the attainment of unity, the interest of the history vanishes. In the case of India the converse proposition holds good, and the reader’s interest varies directly with the degree of unity attained ; the details of Indian annals being insufferably wearisome except when generalized by the application of a bond of political union.

INTRODUCTION

Predomi-

nant

dynasties.

Supremacy of the north.

Isolation of the south.

A history of India, if it is to be read, must necessarily be the story of the predominant dynasties, and either ignore, or relegate to a very subordinate position, the annals of the minor states. Elphinstone acted upon this principle in his classic work, and practically confined his narrative to the transactions of the Sultans of Delhi and their Moghal successors. The same principle has been applied in this book, and attention has been concentrated upon the dominant dynasties which, from time to time, have attained or aspired to paramount power.

Twice, in the long series of centuries dealt with in this history, the political unity of all India was nearly attained ; first, in the third century b. c., when Asoka’s empire extended to the latitude of Madras ; and again, in the fourth century a.d., when Samudragupta carried his victorious arms from the Ganges to the extremity of the Peninsula. Other princes, although their conquests were less extensive, yet succeeded in establishing, and for a time maintaining, empires which might fairly claim to rank as paramount powers. With the history of such princes the following narrative is chiefly concerned, and the affairs of the minor states are either slightly noticed, or altogether ignored.

The paramount power in early times, when it existed, invariably had its seat in Northern India — the region of the Gangetic plain lying to the north of the great barrier of jungle-clad hills which shut off the Deccan from Hindustan. That barrier may be defined conveniently as consisting of the Vindhyan ranges; or may be identified, still more compendiously, with the river Narmada, or Nerbudda, which falls into the Gulf of Cambay.

The ancient kingdoms of the south, although rich and populous, inhabited by Dravidian nations not inferior in culture to their Aryan rivals in the north, were ordinarily so secluded from the rest of the civilized world, including Northern India, that their affairs remained hidden from the eyes of other nations ; and, native annalists being lacking, their history, previous to the year 1000 of the Christian era, has almost wholly perished. Except on the rare occasions

SCOPE OF WORK when an unusually enterprising sovereign of the north either penetrated or turned the forest barrier, and for a moment lifted the veil of secrecy in which the southern potentates lived enwrapped, very little is known concerning political events in the south during the long period extending from 600 b.c. to 1000 a.d. To use the words of Elphinstone, no ‘ connected relation of the national transactions 1 of Southern India in early times can be written ; and an early history of India must, perforce, be concerned mainly with the north.

Strictly speaking, this work is in substance an attempt to Scope of present in narrative form the history of the ancient dominant this work dynasties of Northern India ; while it passes lightly over the annals of the great southern kingdoms, and those of the minor states in every part of the country. But, in the fourteenth chapter, the reader will find a summary account of the more salient events in the story of the mediaeval kingdoms of the north ; and the two succeeding chapters are devoted to a brief narrative of the fortunes of the kingdoms of the Deccan tableland and the Peninsula, so far as they are known, from the earliest times to the Muhammadan invasion at the beginning of the fourteenth century.

The time dealt with is that extending from the beginning of the historical period in 600 b.c. to the Muhammadan conquest, which may be dated in round numbers as having occurred in 1200 a. d. in the north, and a century later in the south. The earliest political event in India to which an approximately correct date can be assigned is the establishment of the Saisunaga dynasty of Magadha about 600 b.c.

II. SOURCES OF INDIAN HISTORY

The sources of, or original authorities for, the early history Four of India may be arranged in four classes. The first of these sourcesis tradition, chiefly as recorded in native literature ; the second consists of those writings of foreign travellers and historians, which contain observations on Indian subjects ; the third is the evidence of archaeology, which may be

Tradition only in earliest period.

The

Kashmir

ehroniele.

The Sanskrit epics.

Incidental

notices.

Jain

books.

subdivided into the monumental, the epigraphic, and the numismatic ; and the fourth comprises the few works of native contemporary literature, which deal expressly with historical subjects.

For the period anterior to Alexander the Great, extending from 600 b.c. to 326 b.c., dependence must be placed almost wholly upon literary tradition, communicated through works composed in many different ages, and frequently recorded in scattered, incidental notices. The purely Indian traditions are supplemented by the notes of the Greek authors, Ktesias, Herodotus, the historians of Alexander, and Megasthenes.

The Kashmir chronicle, composed in the twelfth century, which is in form the nearest approach to a work of regular history in extant Sanskrit literature, contains a large body of confused ancient traditions, which can be used only with much caution. It is also of high value as a trustworthy record of local events for the period contemporary with, or slightly preceding, the author’s lifetime 1.

The great Sanskrit epics, the Mahabharata and Ramayana, while of value as traditional pictures of social life in the heroic age, do not seem to contain matter illustrating the political relations of states during the historical period.

Sanskrit specialists have extracted from the works of grammarians and other authors many incidental references to ancient tradition, which collectively amount to a considerable addition to historical knowledge. These passages from Sanskrit literature, so far as they have come to my notice, have been utilized in this work ; but some references may have escaped attention.

The sacred books of the Jain sect, which are still very imperfectly known, also contain numerous historical statements and allusions of considerable value 2.

1 Kalhana's Rajataranginl, a Chronicle of the Kings of KaJmlr, translated with an Introduction, Commentary, and Appendices, by M. A. Stein (2 vols.. Constable, 1900). This monumental work is as creditable to the enterprise of the publishers as it is to the industry and learning of the translator, who has also produced a critical edition of the text.

2 Some of the leading Jain texts have been translated by Prof.

Hermann Jacobi ( S . B. E., vols. xxii, xlv).

THE PURANAS

The Jataka, or Birth, stories and other books of the Jataka Buddhist canon, include many incidental references to the storiespolitical condition of India in the fifth and sixth centuries b.c., which although not exactly contemporary with the events alluded to, certainly transmit genuine historical tradition h

The chronicles of Ceylon in the Pali language, of which Pali the Dipavamsa, dating probably from the fourth century of^eyfon a. d., and the Mahavamsa are the best known, offer several discrepant versions of early Indian traditions, chiefly concerning the Maurya dynasty. These Sinhalese stories, the value of which has been sometimes overestimated, demand cautious criticism at least as much as do other records of popular and ecclesiastical tradition1 2.

The most systematic record of Indian historical tradition The is that preserved in the dynastic lists of the Puranas. Five Puranas. out of the eighteen works of this class, namely, the Vayu,

Matsya, Vishnu, Brahmanda, and Bhagavata contain such lists. The Brahmanda and Bhagavata Puranas being comparatively late works, the lists in them are corrupt, imperfect, and of slight value. But those in the oldest documents, the Vayu, Matsya, and Vishnu, are full, and evidently based upon good authorities. The latest of these three works, the Vishnu, is the best known, having been completely translated into English 3 ; but in some cases its evidence is not so good as that of the Vayu and Matsya. It was composed, probably, in the fifth or sixth century a. d., and corresponds most closely with the theoretical definition that a Purana should

1 A complete translation of the Jatakas by Mr. W. H. D. Rouse and other scholars is in course of publication, and four volumes have appeared (Cambridge University Press). For the date of the book see Rhys Davids, Buddhist India, pp. 189-208.

2 For a favourable view of the Ceylon chronicles see Rhys Davids,

Buddhist India ; and, on the other side, Foulkes, ‘ The Vicissitudes of the Buddhist Literature of Ceylon ’ (Jnd.Ant.KM ii,100); ‘Buddhaghosa’

(ibid, xix, 105) ; Taw Sein Ko, Kalyani Inscriptions (ibid, xxii, 14); V. A. Smith, Asoka, the Buddhist Emperor of India. The Mahavamsa exists in more recensions than one ; but that ordinarily quoted is the one translated by Tumour, whose version has been revised by Wijesimha.

3 By H. H. Wilson, subsequently edited and improved by F. Hall.

The lists will be found in Duff, Chronology of India (Constable, 1899).

Darius,

Ktesias,

Hero-

dotus.

Officers of Alexander, and envoys.

deal with ‘the five topics of primary creation, secondary creation, genealogies of gods and patriarchs, reigns of various Manus, and the histories of the old dynasties of kings V The Vayu seems to go back to the middle of the fourth century a. d., and the Matsya is probably intermediate in date between it and the Vishnu 1 2.

Modern European writers have been inclined to disparage unduly the authority of the Puranic lists, but closer study finds in them much genuine and valuable historical tradition. For instance, the Vishnu Purana gives the outline of the history of the Maurya dynasty with a near approach to accuracy, and the Radcliffe manuscript of the Matsya is equally trustworthy for Andhra history. Proof of the surprising extent to which coins and inscriptions confirm the Matsya list of the Andhra kings has recently been published 3.

The earliest foreign notice of India is that in the inscriptions of the Persian king, Darius, son of Hystaspes, at Persepolis, and Naksh-i-Rustam, the latter of which may be referred to the year 486 b.c. 4. Herodotus, who wrote late in the fifth century, contributes valuable information concerning the relation between India and the Persian empire, which supplements the less detailed statements of the inscriptions. The fragments of the works of Ktesias of Knidos, who was physician to Artaxerxes Memnon in 401 b.c., and amused himself by collecting travellers’ tales about the wonders of the East, are of very slight value5.

Europe was practically ignorant of India until the veil was lifted by Alexander’s operations and the reports of his officers. Some twenty years after his death the Greek ambassadors sent by the kings of Syria and Egypt to the court of the Maurya emperors recorded careful observations

1 Macdonell, History of Sanskrit Literature, p. 301.

* The relative dates of the Puranas are stated by Bhandarkar in Early History of the Dekkan, 2nd

ed., p. 162 ( Bombay Gazetteer,

vol. i, part 2). For approximate

actual dates see Appendix A at the end of this chapter.

3 V. A. Smith, ‘ Andhra History and Coinage’ (Z. D. M. G., 1902, 1903).

1 Rawlinson, Herodotus, vol. ii, p. 403 ; iv, 207.

6 Translated by McCrindle in Ind. Ant. x, 296 ; the translation was also published separately at Calcutta in 1882.

CHINESE WRITERS on the country to which they were accredited, which have been partially preserved in the works of many Greek and Roman authors. The fragments of Megasthenes are especially valuable h

Arrian, a Graeco-Roman official of the second century a. d., Arrian, wrote a capital description of India, as well as an admirable andothei5' critical history of Alexander’s invasion. Both these works being based upon the reports of Ptolemy son of Lagos, and other officers of Alexander, and the writings of the Greek ambassadors, are entitled to a large extent to the credit of contemporary documents, so far as the Indian history of the fourth century b. c. is concerned. The works of Quintus Curtius and other authors, who essayed to tell the story of Alexander’s Indian campaign, are far inferior in value ; but each has merits of its own 1 2.

The Chinese 4 Father of history,’ Ssu-ma-ch’ien, who com- Chinese pleted his work about 100 b.c., is the first of a long series Qf historians. Chinese historians, whose writings throw much light upon the early annals of India. The accurate chronology of the Chinese authors gives their statements peculiar value 3.

The long series of Chinese Buddhist pilgrims who con- Fa-hien, tinued for several centuries to visit India, which they regarded Chinese as their Holy Land, begins with Fa-hien (Fa-hsien); who started on his travels in 399 a.d., and returned to China fifteen years later. The book in which he recorded his journeys has been preserved complete, and translated once into French, and four times into English. It includes a very interesting and valuable description of the government and social condition of the Gangetic provinces during the reign of Chandra-gupta II, Vikramaditya. Several other pilgrims

1 Edited by Schwanbeek, Bonn, 1846 ; translated by McCrindle.

a The Greek and Roman notices of India have been collected, translated, and discussed by Mr.

McCrindle in six useful books, published between 1882 and 1901, and dealing with (1) Ktesias, ( 2) Indika of Megasthenes and Arrian,

(3) Periplus of the Erythraean Sea,

(4) Ptolemy’s Geography, (5)

Alexander’s Invasion, and (6) Ancient India, as described by other classical writers.

3 M. Chavannes has published a translation of Ssu-ma-ch’ien. The French sinologists have been specially active in exploring the Chinese sources of Indian history, and several of their publications will be cited in later chapters.

Hiuen

Tsang.

AlberunT.

left behind them works which contribute something to the elucidation of Indian history, and their testimony will be cited in due course.

But the prince of pilgrims, the illustrious Hiuen Tsang, whose fame as Master of the Law still resounds through all Buddhist lands, deserves more particular notice. His travels, described in a work entitled Records of the W estern World , which has been translated into French, English, and German, extended from 629 a.d. to 645 or 646, and covered an enormous area, including almost every part of India, except the extreme south. His book is a treasure-house of accurate information, indispensable to every student of Indian antiquity, and has done more than any archaeological discovery to render possible the remarkable resuscitation of lost Indian history which has recently been effected. Although the chief historical value of Hiuen Tsang’s work consists in its contemporary description of political and social institutions, the pilgrim has increased the debt of gratitude due to his memory by recording a considerable mass of ancient tradition, which would have been lost but for his care to preserve it. The Life of Hiuen Tsang, composed by his friend Hwui-li, contributes many details supplemental to the narrative in the Travels1.

The learned mathematician and astronomer, AlberunT, almost the only Muhammadan scholar who has ever taken the trouble to learn Sanskrit, essentially a language of idolatrous unbelievers, when regarded from a Muslim point of view, entered India in the train of Mahmud of Ghazni. His work, descriptive of the country, and entitled ‘ An Enquiry into India 1 ( Tahkih-i-Hind), which was finished in 1031 a.d., is of high value as an account of Hindu manners, science, and literature ; but contributes little information which can be utilized for the purposes of political history 2.

1 See Appendix B, The Chinese The author’s full designation was Pilgrims, at the end of this chapter. Abu-Rihan, Muhammad, son of

2 Edited and translated by Ahmad ; but he became familiarly Sachau. Major Raverty points out known as the Ustad, or Master, that the title of Alberunfs work is Bu-Rihan, surnamed Al-Beruni Tahklkr-, not Tdrikh-i-Hi nd (J. A. (ibid.).

INSCRIPTIONS

The visit of the Venetian traveller, Marco Polo, to Southern Marco India in 1294-5 a.d. just comes within the limits of this Pol°' volume h

The Muhammadan historians of India are valuable autho- Muhararities for the history of the conquest by the armies of Islam1 2. ^storians

The monumental class of archaeological evidence, considered Monuby itself and apart from the inscriptions on the walls of evidence, buildings, offers little direct contribution to the materials for political history, but is of high illustrative value, and greatly helps the student in realizing the power and magnificence of some of the ancient dynasties.

Unquestionably the most copious and important source of Inscripearly Indian history is the epigraphic ; and the accurate tl0nsknowledge of many periods of the long-forgotten past which has now been attained is derived mainly from the patient study of inscriptions during the last seventy years. Inscriptions are of many kinds. Asoka’s edicts, or sermons on stone, form a class by themselves ; no other sovereign having imitated his practice of engraving ethical exhortations on the rocks. Equally peculiar is the record of two Sanskrit plays on tables of stone at Ajmir3. But the great majority of inscriptions are commemorative, dedicatory, or donative. The former two classes comprise a vast variety of records, extending from the mere signature of a pilgrim’s name to an elaborate panegyrical poem in the most artificial style of Sanskrit verse ; and for the most part are incised on stone. The donative inscriptions — or grants — on the other hand, are mostly engraved on plates of copper, the favourite material used for permanent record of conveyances.