The Story of the Nations: Buddhist India

The author has described that in this rare work a first attempt has been made to describe ancient India, during the period of Buddhist ascendancy, from the point of view, not so much of the Brahmin, as of the Rajput. The two points of view naturally differ very much. Priest and noble in India have always worked very well together so long as the question at issue did not touch their own rival claims as against one another. When it did — and it did so especially during the period referred to — the harmony, as will be evident from the following pages, was not so great. Even to make this attempt at all may be regarded by some as a kind of its majesty. The Brahmin view, in possession of the field when Europeans entered India, has been regarded so long with reverence among us that it seems almost an impertinence now, to put forward the other. “Why not leave well alone? Why resuscitate from the well-deserved oblivion in which, for so many centuries, they have happily lain, the pestilent views of these tiresome people? The puzzles of Indian history have been solved by respectable men in Manu and the Great Bharata, which have the advantage of being equally true for five centuries before Christ and five centuries after. Another point of a similar kind, which ought not in this connection to be left unnoticed, is the prevalent pessimistic idea with regard to historical research in India. There are not only wanting in India such books giving consecutive accounts of the history as we are accustomed to in Europe, but even the names and dates of the principal kings, and battles, and authors, have not been preserved in the literature — that is, of course, in the Brahmin literature which is all that has hitherto been available to the student. (anon)