[Footnote 5: The tribes became Hinduized, their chiefs became R[=a]jputs; their religions doubtless affected the ritual and creed of the civilized as much as the religion of the latter colored their own. Some of these un-Aryan peoples were probably part native, part barbaric. There is much doubt in regard to the dates that depend on accepted eras. It is not certain, for instance, that, as Müller claims, Kanishka's inauguration coincides with the Çaka era, 78 A.D. A great Buddhist council was held under him. Some distinguished scholars still think with Bühler that Vikram[=a]ditya's inauguration was 57 B.C. (this date that used to be assigned to him). From our present point of view it is of little consequence when this king himself lived. He is renowned as patron of arts and as a conqueror of the barbarians. If he lived in the first century B.C. his conquest amounted to nothing permanent. What is important, however, is that all Vikram[=a]ditya stands for in legend must have been in the sixth century A.D. For the drama, of which he is said to have been patron, represents a religion distinctly later than that of the body of the epic (completed in the sixth or seventh century, Bühler, Indian Studies, No. ii.). The dramatic and astronomical era was but introductory to Kum[=a]rila's reassertion of Brahmanism in the seventh century, when the Northern barbarian was gone, and the Mohammedan was not yet rampant. In the rest of Northern India there were several native dynasties in different quarters, with different eras; one in Sur[=a]shtra (Gujar[=a]t), one again in the 'middle district' or 'North Western Provinces,' one in Kutch; overthrown by Northern barbarians (in the fifth century) and by the Mohammedans (in the seventh and eighth centuries), respectively. Of these the Guptas of the 'middle district,' and the Valabh[=i]s of Kutch, had neither of the eras just mentioned. The former dated from 320-321 (perhaps 319), the latter from 190 (A.D.). The word samvat, 'year,' indicates that the time is dated from either the Çaka or Vikram[=a]ditya era. See IA. xvii. 362; Fergusson, JRAS. xii. 259; Müller, India, What Can It Teach Us? p. 282; Kielhorn, IA. xix. 24; xxii. 111. The Northern barbarians are called Scythians, or Huns, or Turanians, according to fancy. No one really knows what they were.]
[Footnote 6: The first host was expelled by the Hindus in 750. After a period of rest Mahmud was crowned in 997, who overran India more than a dozen times. In the following centuries the land was conquered and the people crushed by the second great Mohammedan, Ghori, who died in 1206, leaving his kingdom to a vassal, Kutab, the 'slave sultan' of Delhi. In 1294, thus slave dynasty having been recently supplanted, the new successor to the throne was slain by his own nephew, Allah-ud-din, who is reckoned as the third Mohammedan conqueror of India. His successor swept even the Dekhan of all its Hindu (temple) wealth; but his empire finally broke down under its own size; preparing the way for Timur (Tamerlane), who entered India in 1398.]
[Footnote 7: Çankara himself was not a pure Brahman. Both
Vishnuites and Çivaites lay claim to him.]
[Footnote 8: Coy as was the Brahman in the adoption of the new gods he was wise enough to give them some place in his pantheon, or he would have offended his laity. Thus he recognizes K[=a]l[=i] as well as Çr[=i]; in fact he prefers to recognize the female divinities of the sects, for they offer less rivalry.]
[Footnote 9: There was a general revival of letters antedating the Brahmanic theological revival. The drama, which reflects equally Hinduism and Brahmanism, is now the favorite light literature of the cultured. In the sixth century the first astronomical works are written (Var[=a]hamihira, who wrote the B[r.]hat Sa[.m]hit[=a]), and the group of writers called the Nine Gems (reckoned of Vikram[=a]ditya's court) are to be referred to this time. The best known among them is K[=a]lid[=a]sa, author of the Çakuntal[=a]. An account of this Renaissance, as he calls it, will be found in Müller's India, What Can It Teach Us? The learned author is perhaps a little too sweeping in his conclusions. It is, for instance, tolerably certain that the Bh[=a]rata was completed by the time the 'Renaissance' began; so that there is no such complete blank as he assumes prior to Vikram[=a]ditya. But the general state of affairs is such as is depicted in the ingenious article referred to. The sixth and seventh centuries were eras that introduced modern literature under liberal native princes, who were sometimes not R[=a]jputs at all. Roughly speaking, one may reckon from 500 B.C. to the Christian era as a period of Buddhistic control, Graeco-Bactrian invasion, and Brahmanic decline. The first five centuries after the Christian see the two religions in a state of equilibrium, under Scythian control, and the Mah[=a]-Bh[=a]rata, the expanded Bh[=a]rata, is written. From 500 to 1000 is an era of native rulers, Brahmanic revival in its pure form, and Hindu growth, with little trouble from the Mohammedans. Then for five centuries the horrors of Moslem conquest.]
[Footnote 10: Har. 10,662. Compare the laudation of 'the two
gods' in the same section.]
[Footnote 11: As the Jains have Angas and Up[=a]ngas, and as
the pseudo-epic distinguishes Nishads and Upanishads, so the
Brahman has Pur[=a]nas and Upapur[=a]nas (K[=u]rma
Pur[=a]na, i. p. 3). Some of the sects acknowledge only six
Pur[=a]nas as orthodox.]
[Footnote 12: As an example of a Puranic Smriti (legal) we may cite the trash published as the V[r.]ddha-H[=a]rita-Sa[.m]hit[=a]. Here there is polemic against Çiva; one must worship Jagann[=a]th with flowers, and every one must be branded with the Vishnu disc (cakra). Even women and slaves are to use mantras, etc.]
[Footnote 13: The lateness of this law-book is evident from its advocacy of suttee (XXV. 14), its preference for female ancestors (see below), etc.]
[Footnote 14: Manu, III. 89; XII. 121.]