The history of India

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CHAP. PAGE

I. THE PHYSICAL GEOGBAPHY OF INDIA ... 1

II. THE CONQUEST OF INDIA BY THE ARYAN-HINDUS 13

Part I. — Ancibnt And Modern Political Divisions, And Places Of Interest . . .170

PART II. — INDIA IN 1900: ITS PEOPLES, THEIR CON- DITION, RESOURCES, INSTITUTIONS, AND FORMS OF IMPERIAL, PROVINCIAL, AND MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT .... 187

INDEX 199 lseiiin-nifif>'< India*

TAN LAK R Al N AGE

AN EASY INTRODUCTION

TO

THE HISTOEY OF INDIA:

Chapter I. The Land And Its Physical Features

§ 1. Extent and Boundaries. § 2. Two Great Divisions, Hindustan and the Deccan. § 3. Physical Divisions of Northern India. § 4. The Plains of Northern India. § 5. The North-Eastern Valleys. § 6. The Mabra Plateau. § 7. Physical Divisions of Southern India. § 8. The Plateau of the Deccan and Mysore. § 9. The Western Maritime Fringe. § 10. The Eastern Maritime Fringe. §11. Ceylon. § 12. Burma. § 13. British Baluchistan. §14. Coast-line and Harbours.

§ 1. Extent and Boundaries. — India (excluding the province of Burma, or Bnrmah) may be described roughly as the country which lies between the Himalaya mountains and the sea. From Quetta in British Baluchistan, in the extreme west, to the eastern borders of Assam is a distance of about 1,800 miles. About the same distance separates Peshawar, in the north of the Panjab, from Cape Comorin at the southern extremity of the Empire. And the area included within these limits exceeds 1,587,000 square miles ; and if to this be added the territories of Burma, the total extent of the Indian Empire is about 1,800,000 square miles, or nearly one-fourth of the whole of the British Empire.

Its boundary on the north is the mountain-chain of the Himalayas, the highest mountains in the world. The river Indus bursts through the Himalaya mountains by a gorge in east longitude 72°, in the northern corner of the Panjab ; the river Dihong, the chief tributary of the Brahmaputra, finds its way through the same chain in east longitude 95° 30', in the north-east of Assam ; and between these points the Himalaya is an unbroken watershed, of an average height of 19,000 feet, for a distance of 1,400 miles. The highest peak is Mount Everest, 29,000 feet above the sea-level.

!Near Peshawar, west of the Indns, is the entrance to the Khaibar Pass, leading to Jalalabad and Kabul through terrible defiles to the north of the Safed Koh range of mountains ; and south of that range is the Kuram Pass, also leading , to Kabul, through a very wild, mountainous region, by the famous ascents of the Pewar Kohtal and the Shutargardan Pass.

The Suleman mountains, running nearly north and Bouth to the west of the Indus, and parallel to that »iver, separate the plains of the Panjab from the Kabul plateau and Sewistan. Its highest peak, the Takht-i- Suleman, or " Solomon's Throne," is under 12,000 feet. Southward the range becomes less elevated, until at length it turns westward, to bound the plain leading up to the Bolan Pass — the great military and commercial road from India to Quetta, in British Baluchistan, and also to Kandahar, Herat, and Western Asia generally. From this pass, the Hal a range of mountains skirts the valley of the Indus on the west, almost to the sea.

From Karachi to Cape Comorin, the Indian Ocean is the boundary on the west and south-west ; while from. Cape Comorin to the confines of Burma the boundary is the Bay of Bengal on the east and south-east.

Burma is bounded 011 the south-west by the Bay of Bengal ; on the north-west and north by wild mountainous, regions, partly unexplored, that separate it from Assam and Thibet (or Tibet, or Tibbat) ; and on the north-east and past by similar regions, separating it from China and Slum.

§ 2. Two great Divisions — Hindustan and the Deccan (or Dakhin). — India Proper — that is, excluding the Burmese territories — is divided into two parts, commonly called Hindustan and the Deccan (or Dakhin) respectively, by a chain of highlands that runs across the country, nearly from sea to sea, iu the northern part of the peninsula, and just south of the tropic of Cancer. This chain of highlands is the most important water-parting in the country ; the waters to the north draining chiefly into the Narbada and the Ganges, those to the south into the Tapti, the Mahanadi, and some smaller streams. Its general direction is from west by south to east by north. In the west, between the basins of the Narbada and the Tapti, it is called the Satpura range ; on the eastern side it becomes merged in the plateau of Chntia Nagpur and Hazaribagh in Bengal. It will be seen hereafter that the western portion of this chain is also the boundary between two important sections of the Indian people — between the Hindi-speaking and the Marathi-speaking races. For all these reasons, it is convenient to regard this chain of highlands as the division between Northern and Southern India, which are often called Hindustan and the Deccan respectively.

It should, however, be remembered that the terms 'Hindustan' and 'the Deccan,' as commonly used, are ambiguous. Hindustan is sometimes used by European geographers to indicate the whole of India ; whilst on the other hand the meaning of the term in India is sometimes restricted to those regions in the upper Gangetic valley which are occupied by Hindi-speaking races. When opposed to ' the Deccan,' it means broadly ' Northern India,' as opposed to ' Southern India ' ; but the boundary is sometimes placed at the Narbada river, sometimes as we have placed it above, and sometimes at the Vindhya range (which bounds the Narbada valley on the north). So, too, ' the Deccan ' is sometimes restricted in its meaning to the territory forming the northern portion of the

B 2 great plateau of Southern India, and sometimes applied specially to the Feudatory State ruled by the Nizam of Haidarabad, nearly coincident with that territory. In ancient Indian writers, the boundary between Hindustan and the Deccan is uniformly placed at the Vindhya range.

§ 3. Physical Divisions of Nortliern India. — Northern India consists mainly of a vast plain, which includes (1) the basin of the Indus, and the Thar or Great Indian Desert on the west ; (2) the basin of the Ganges and its tributaries in the centre and east, comprising the modern divisions of the North- Western Provinces, Oadh, Bihar, Bengal, and parts of Bajputana and the Central India Agency (see Appendix A) ; and (3) two valleys in the far east, which form the basin of the Brahmaputra and its affluents (now Assam and Eastern Bengal). This plain is flanked on the north and west by mountain-zones, the Himalaya and the Suleman ranges. On the south of some portions of the western and central divisions of this plain is the great pleateau of Malwa and Baghalkhand, which is separated from the central mountain-axis (the Satpura and other ranges) by the valley of the Narbada.

§ 4. The Plains of Northern India. — The vast plain of Northern India consists of the Indus valley, the Thar or Great Indian Desert, and the Gangetic Valley. These divisions run into each other without visible interruption ; for though the water-parting between the two great rivers is at an elevation of from 800 to 1,000 feet above sea-level at its highest point somewhere north of Delhi, yet the slope on each side is so gradual as to be imperceptible.

The western part of this plain consists of the alluvial valley of the Indus and its tributaries ; the saline swamps of Cutch (Kadi) ; the rolling sands and rocky plains of the desert, which covers much of Sind, the south of the Panjab, and Western Bajputana; and the south-easterly margin of this desert in Rajputana, which is less sterile, because it receives more rain and is watered by the Luni. The whole of this region is dry, and some of it almost rainless.

At Mithankot the Indus receives, as a tributary, the collected waters of the Five Rivers, from which the Panjab (Panj-db = Five waters) takes its name. These rivers all rise in the Himalaya, and flow south- west through the Panjab. These, commencing with the most southerly (which is also the greatest), are the Satlej, the Bias, the Ravi (on which is Lahore), the Chenab, and the Jhelam (which drains Kashmir). The plains of the Panjab slope insensibly from north-east to south-west, from the Himalaya towards the sea. The strips between the rivers are called Dodbs, and consist of Bdngar land and KJiddar land. The Khddar is the fertile fringe of the river below floodlevel — within which the river often alters its course from year to year, sometimes deviating many miles from its old channel. The Bdngar is the higher land between the rivers, generally arid and sterile, and often bare or covered only with coarse scrub — though in the northern and less dry portion of the Panjab it bears luxuriant crops of wheat.

The water-system of the Ganges drains an area of 391,000 square miles (the area of the Indus valley being less by some 20,000 square miles). The Ganges leaves the Himalaya near Hardwar, and flows to the Bay of Bengal, in a direction generally south-east, its course being about 1.500 miles. The Jamund, or Jamnah, joins it at Allahabad, and above that point has a fair claim to be considered the main stream. Agra, Muttra (Mathurd), and Delhi are on its banks ; and the highly fertile tract of land between it and the Ganges is called ' the Doab,' as being the most important of all the Doabs of India. The most important of the other tributaries of the Ganges are — on the south side, the Chambal from Malwa, the Betwa from Bhopal and Bundelkhand, and the Son from Central India ; on the north side, the Gumti from Oudh. the Rapti, Gandak, and Kosi from Nepal, and the Tista from Sikkim. The great Gangetic Delta commences at a point near Murshidabad, below which the courses of the yarious channels have for ages been shifting. Below this point the present main stream is the Padma, still sometimes called Ganges ; whilst the ancient main stream is now a much smaller one called the Bhagirathi, which, joins some others to form the Hooghly, or Hngli, on which Calcutta is built. ., The Gangetic Delta with the contiguous delta of the Brahmaputra forms the marvellous network of rivers for which Eastern Bengal is famous.

§ 5. The North- Eastern Valleys. — Eastward from this network of rivers, two alluvial plains stretch up between the wild ranges of mountains that connect the Himalayan system with that of the Burmese peninsula. The more northerly one is that of the Brahmaputra, called Assam ; it is long and narrow, and is bordered on the north by the Himalaya, on the south by the lower plateau of the Garo, Khasi, and Naga hill*. The other valley is that of the river Surma, including the districts of Cachar and Silhat — short and broad, and in part occupied by swamps ; it separates the Garo, Khasi, and Naga hills from those of Tiparah and the Lushai country. The Assam valley, one of the homes of the tea-plant, is almost a perfect flat, with clumps of little conical hills scattered over the plains and rising abruptly to the height of 200 to 700 feet. A large number of rivers flow through this plain to join the Brahmaputra, and the rainfall is very heavy.

§ 6. The Mdlwa Plateau. — The great plateau of Malwa and Baghalkhand occupies the space intervening between the Gangetic plain on the north, the semi-fertile fringe of the Great Indian Desert (the part watered by the Lnni) on the north-west, the valley of the Narbada on the south, and the valley of the Son (a tributary of the Ganges) on the south-east. Its slope is almost entirely northward, from the Vindhya mountains, its southern wall, to the Gangetic plain. With the exception of a small area in the south-west, which drains into the Mahi (an insignificant river falling into the Gulf of Kambay), the whole drainage of the plateau is into the Ganges. Its north-west and west wall is formed by the Aravali mountains, which cross

THE HIPTOKY OF INDIA. 7

Bajputana from its south-west corner to the neighbourhood of Delhi ; the highest peak, Mount Abu, is over 5,000 feet. The surface of the plateau is an undulating plain with occasional hills, the highest of which does not exceed 2,500 feet.

Intervening between this plateau and the central mountain-axis of the Satpuras, is the long narrow valley of the Narbada, which flows from east to west into the Arabian Sea, or Indian Ocean, at Baroch.

§ 7. Physical Divisions of Southern India. — India south of the Satpuras is a triangular peninsula, its base being the Satpuras mountains and their continuations, its apex at Cape Comorin, its eastern side resting on the Bay of Bengal, called the ' Coromandel Coast,' and its western side resting on the Indian Ocean, called the ' Malabar Coast.' The whole of the interior of this country is a vast plateau, the plateau of the Deccan and Mysore, somewhat in the shape of a triangle, whose base and sides are parallel to those of the triangle of Southern India. Fringing this plateau are, on the north-west, the valley of the Tapti j on the west, the narrow belt of hot, moist, and somewhat rugged country between the Western Ghats and the Indian Ocean ; on the east, a belt (generally much broader, but varying greatly in breadth) of hot, low country between the Eastern Ghats and the Bay of Bengal ; whilst on the south, beyond the apex of the triangle, is a hilly region extending to Cape Comorin.

§ 8. The Plateau of the Daccan and Mysore. — The combined valleys of the Tapti and its affluent, the Purna, intervene, in the western and central part of the peninsula, between the Satpura mountain-axis and the Deccan plateau. They are occupied by the fine plains of Khandesh and Barar, having a soil famous as the black ' cotton soil.' At the head of the Purna valley, the plains of Barar pass .without perceptible interruption into those of the tributaries of the Godavari, which extend far down that i-iver, and form one slope (the lowest portion) of the Deccan plateau. Eastward, nearly as far as the Orissa coast of the Bay of

Bengal, is an immense extent of mountainous country, drained by the Mahanadi and its affluents, and comprising a large portion of the Central Provinces, the southern portion of Chutia Nagpur, and Orissa. The main stream. of the Mahanadi only emerges from these hills through a narrow gorge near Cuttack (KaiaTt), just above the head of its delta, which forms part of an alluvial plain extending to the delta of the Ganges.

The Western Ghats are the western barrier of this plateau ; and the Eastern Ghats, a lower and less continuous chain, are the eastern barrier. As may be inferred from the fact that the great rivers of the peninsula rise near the Yfestern Ghats, and flow eastward through the line of the Eastern Ghats, the general slope of the country is from the Western Ghats eastward to the bay of Bengal, with a more or less sudden drop at the line called the Eastern Gbats. Hence a vertical section of the peninsula from west to east, from the Indian Ocean to the bay of Bengal, would be somewhat as under : —

^Veslern Ghats

Indian Ocean

The basin of the Godavari and its tributaries (of which the chief are the Wardha and the Wainganga) coincides with a broad depression in the Deccan plateau, which slopes gently from Nagpur (1,000 feet high) to the sea. Another broad depression is caused by the basin of the Kistna (or Krishna) and its great affluents, the Bhima and the Tungabhadra, and this depression separates the southern plateaa of Mysore (with Bangalore at a height of 3,000 feet) from the northern plateau of the Deccan proper. The central part of the plateau, except where under field cultivation, is a bare grassy country, with a gently undulating surface, and occasional ridges of rocky hills OP clusters of bold isolated peaks ; and the general appearance of the rugged Krishna valley is of very similar character.

A little to the south of Madras the Eastern Ghats trend off to the westward, bounding the plateau of Mysore ; and at their junction with the Western Ghats rises the bold triangular plateau of the Nilgiri Hills, the highest point of which, Dodabetta, is not less than 8,640 feet above the sea.

South of the Nilgiris is a broad depression called the Palghat Pass, or Gap of Coimbatore. This depression, which is only 1,500 feet high at its highest point, connects the low country forming the eastern fringe of the peninsula with that forming the western fringe, and separates the highlands of the Nilgiris from those of Travancore and the southern corner of India.

The plateau of Mysore is drained by three small rivers (called the Ponnar, the Palar, and the Southern Ponnar) on the east, and on the south by the Kaveri (or Cauvery), which also drains the Nilgiris. The Kaveri flows into the Bay of Bengal by two arms, of which the northern one is called the Kalarun (or Coleroon).

§ 9. The Western Maritime Fringe. — The narrow strip of low country that fringes the peninsula below the Western Ghats is called Malabar in the south and tho Konkan in the north. It varies in width from twenty miles to fifty miles. It is well watered by short streams from the Ghats, and is somewat rugged, being much intersected by short spurs of that range. The rainfall being heavy and the climate hot, the forests are dense and the vegetation tropical.

§ 10. The Eastern Maritime Fringe. — On the east side of the peninsula the fringing plain is generally very much broader, though for a short distance near Madras it is only thirty miles across, and is still narrower near Vizagapatam. In its southern part it is called the Carnatic. South of Madras it occupies from one-third to one-half the width of the peninsula, and runs up the valley of the Kaveri to the foot of the Nilgiri hills, where it is 2,000 feet above the level of the sea. It includes the alluvial deltas of the Kaveri, the Krishna, the Godavari, and the Mahanacli, as well as nearly the entire basins of some smaller rivers, such as the Ponnar and Palar. Whilst it contains some of the hottest districts in India, it is generally highly productive. The rich district of Tamore on the Kaveri delta owes its remarkable fertility to an elaborate system of irrigation.

§ 11. Ceylon. — The island of Ceylon lies south-east of Cape Comoriu, its west coast being in the same longitude as the east coast of the Indian peninsula between Negapatam and Pondicherry. The sea that separates Ceylon from India is called the Gulf of Manar on the south and Pa,lk's Straits on the north ; it is almost bridged by a chain of coral reefs and islands (called Rama's or Adam's bridge), which practically closes all the channels against navigation. Ceylon, though geographically an Indian island, is not connected politically with the Indian Empire — being an English. Crown colony, under a Governor appointed* by the Colonial Office in London. The Indian name of Ceylon is Singhala or Lanka ; the Muhammadan writers used to call it Silau, and the name Ceylon is another spelling of Silan.

§ 12. Burma. — The great Province of Burma, forming an important part of the peninsula of 'Further India,' is geogaphically separate from India Proper ; but it is politically a part of the Indian Empire, under a Chief Commissioner appointed by the Viceroy of India.

For political purposes, the province is divided into Lower Burma, acquired by the wars of 1824 and 1852, and Upper Burma, annexed in 1886. But geographically, Upper Burma consists of the upper valleys of the same rivers — the Irawadi and the Salwen — whose lower valleys form the most important part of Lower Burma.

The area of the whole of the province — but not including some of the Shan States and much of the wild and mountainous country on the frontiers, as yet hardly explored — is about 171,000 square miles. Of this, about

88,000 square miles are included in Lower Burma, and about 83,000 square miles in Upper Burma. The unsettled and partly unexplored regions on the frontiers of Thibet (orTibbat), China, and Siam have been estimated to contain a further area of 100,000 square miles.

The leading physical features of the province are comparatively simple. From the upper end of the Assam valley, a series of wild mountain-ranges diverge to the southward. Of these, the westernmost is called the Patkoi Hills, and separates Assam from Upper Bi>rma. Spurs of the Patkoi Hills connect that range with the Lushai Hills ; and the Feudatory State of Manipur (politically connected with Assam) occupies a valley in this region, the drainage of which flows down into an affluent of the Irawadi. Further south, one of the continuations of the Patkoi range is called the Arakan Toma. This range separates the valley of the Irawadi from the maritime district of Arakan, which is the part of Burma adjacent to the Chittagong division of Bengal. The Arakan Yoma, called also the ' Coast Range,' dips into the sea at Cape Negrais ; far southward at sea it is continued in the Great and Little Coco Islands, the Andaman Islands, and the Nikobars.

The delta of the Irawadi fbrms, with its fertile lower basin, the rich province of Pegu, the central district of Lower Burma, famous for rice and teak- wood. The valley of the Irawadi consists of plains intersected by low hillranges, which generally run north and south. It is bounded on the east by the Pegu Yoma, a range of hills separating it from the valley of the river Salwen. The Tenasserim division, the third and most southerly part of Lower Burma, consists of the delta of the Salwen, with a long narrow strip of maritime territory running out southward, bounded by the mountains of Siam on the east.

§ 13. British Baluchistan. — Like Burma in the extreme east, so British Baluchistan in the extreme west of the Indian Empire must be regarded as geographically outside India Proper. It consists partly of Pishin and other

Afghan mountain- valleys, ceded by the Amir of Afghanis, tan in 1879 ; and partly of Quetta and other Baluch districts within the Feudatory territories of the Khan of Kalat, which are administered by British officials on behalf of the Khan. All these districts are situated on the lofty highlands west of the Suleman mountains ; and the Bolan and Sind-Pishin Railways, which connect them with India by the difficult route of the Bolan Pass, are admired as triumphs of railway engineering.

§ 14. Coast-line and Harbours. — The coast-line of India is on the whole unbroken, affording few good harbours. Calcutta is one of the most dangerous ports in the world, being 80 miles up a winding river, with, barely 20 feet of water at low tide at many points, and the channel narrow and intricate. Madras is an open roadstead, with an artificial harbour constructed at great cost. It has a beach famous for its lines of surf ; and all the ports on the Coromandel Coast, from the Hooghly (or Hngli) to Cape Comorin, are of a similar character. In Ceylon there is the first-class harbour of Trincomalee, which is the dockyard of the Royal Navy in the East, but it is situated in an inaccessible and unhealthy part of the island. Galle, at the southern extremity of Ceylon, has a good though somewhat dangerous harbour. Colombo, on the western coast of Ceylon, is healthily situated and is the natural outlet of the important export trade of Ceylon ; it is the coaling station and port of call for all the great ocean steamers on the ' overland ' lines to Madras and Calcutta, as well as to Singapore and the Indian Archipelago, China, Japan, and Australasia. Colombo, like Madras, is an open roadstead, with a breakwater which largely increases its value as a harbour. On the Malabar coast are several valuable harbours — Cochin, Calicut, Mangalore. Bombay is a very fine harbour ; the Portugese are said on this account to have altered its native name (Mombai or Mambe) into Buon-bahia, ' good harbour ' ; and being connected by rail with all parts of India, its

THE HtSTOfcY OF iNfilA. 13

commercial importance is very great indeed. Surat, the natural port of the Tapti, and Baroch, that of the Narbada, cannot shelter large vessels during the summer monsoon. Next to Calcutta and Bombay, the chief commercial port of India is now Karachi. It is situated at the north-west corner of the delta of the Indus, and being the nearest port to Europe, and connected by rail with the Panjab and Upper India, it is fast rising in importance.

Eastward of Calcutta is the port of Chittagong in East Bengal ; it is only available for small vessels, and only valuable as an outlet for the rice of that region. The ports of Burma are Akyab, Rangoon at the mouth of an arm of the Irawadi, and Moulmein at the mouth of the Sal wen.

The coast of Malabar and Travancore is fringed with sand-spits, inclosing ' backwaters,' which are so connected as to afford a very complete system of inland navigation.

Chapter II. The Conquest Of India By The Aryan-hindis

§ 1. Sources from which we obtain our knowledge of the early ftistory. § 2. The Vedas. § 3. The ancient Hindus of the Patriarchal Age. § 4. The ancient Hindus of the Heroic Age. § 5. Legends of the Heroic Age.

§ 1. Sources from which we obtain our Tcnoidedge of the early history. — In very ancient times in India no one ever thought of sitting down and writing an account of the events which he saw or heard of as occurring in the country ; and in consequence of this negligence no trustworthy history was written in India until after the Muhammadan conquest, i.e. until some period not nine hundred years ago. All we know, therefore, about the earlier history of this country must be derived, not from regular histories or annals, but from other sources, such as legends or ancient popular tales, hints collected from ancient religious or poetical writings, references to Indian affairs by the historians of other countries, hints derived from the writings on coins, or ancient inscriptions on stone or metal ; and other sources of which we need not speak here.

§ 2. The Vedas. — The writings that are considered most sacred by the Hindus are called the Vedas. These sacred writings are in Sanskrit — a language which was spoken in ancient times throughout the north of India ; and it is believed that some of these writings were composed more than 3,200 years ago. The oldest parts of the Vedas are Jlynins or invocations to God ; and from these (combined with other sources) we learn something about the circumstances of the Hindus of that period.

§ 3. The Ancient Hindus of the Patriarchal Age. — It appears, then, that the ancestors of the people whom we now call Hindus did not live in India in very ancient times, but in the highlands of Central Asia. They were tohen called Aryans ; and were the ancestors, not only of the Hindus, who afterwards came to India, but also of the Europeans, who went to live in Europe, and of the Persians, who went to live in Persia.

At last the Hindu tribe of the Aryan race migrated southward from Central Asia over the high mountains which you will see marked in the Atlas as the Hindu Kush ; and so they came first into the Panjab [see Chap. I.] Besides the five rivers which now, with the Indus, water the Panjab, there was then another tributary of the Indus, called the Saraswati, which in modern times never reaches the Indus at all, but loses itself in the sands of the desert. On the banks of the river Saraswati and of the other Panjab rivers the Hindu- Aryans remained for many centuries ; and were probably living here under a sort of patriarchal government at the time to which the hymns of the Vedas refer, the district being called by them Brahmaoartta.

[NOTE.' — A government is called Patriarchal (from the Greek words pater, a father, and archos, chief) when the head of the family rules that family as its chief.]

The head or patriarch of the tribe was not only its chief, but also its priest. When it was necessary these Aryan invaders fonght against the original inhabitants of the country (called aborigines or aboriginal tribes), who were people of a darker colour than themselves ; and as the Aryans were braver than the aborigines, and possessed better weapons and wore strong armour of mail (that is, armour made of small iron or bronze rings closely interlaced), they were usually victorious, and drove the aborigines away into the hills and forests where their descendants still live. But generally during this patriarchal period the Aryans contented themselves with living quietly in the fertile plains of the Panjab ; and the people, led a very simple life, being all of them engaged in feeding cattle and occasionally in a little rude agriculture.

§ 4. The Ancient Hindus of the Heroic Age. — This state of affairs probably continued, as we have said, for many centuries, during which the Aryan-Hindus gradually became richer and more numerous ; and at last they began to think themselves strong enough to conquer the rich plains watered by the Ganges and its tributaries, which were even more fertile than those of the Panjab.