The sources of, or original authorities for, the early history of India may be arranged in four classes. The first of these  is 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 subdivided into the monumental, the epigraphic, and the numismatic; and the fourth comprises the few works of native contemporary, or nearly 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, Ktēsias, Herodotus, the historians of Alexander, Megasthenes and others.

The Kashmīr 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.

The great Sanskrit epics, the Mahābhārata and Rāmāyana, 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.

Linguistic 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. Such passages from Sanskrit and Pra̅krit literature, so far as they have come to my notice, have been utilized in this work ; but some 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.

The Jātaka, or  Birth stories, and other books of the Buddhist canon, include many incidental references to the political 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.

The chronicles of Ceylon in the Pāli language, of which Pāli the Dīpaxaṁsa, dating probably from the fourth century after Christ, and the Mahāvaṁśa, about a century and a half later in date, 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 tradition.

The most systematic record of Indian historical tradition is that preserved in the dynastic lists of the Purānas.   Five  out of the eighteen works of this class, namely, the Vāyu, Matsya, Vishṇu, Brahmānda, and Bhāgavata contain such lists.   The Matsya is the earliest and most authoritative.

Theory required that a Purāṇa should 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’. The last named of the five topics is the only one which concerns the historian. Modern European writers have been inclined to disparage unduly the authority of the Purānic lists, but closer study finds in them much genuine and valuable historical tradition.

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. 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 Ktēsias of Knidos, who was physician to Artaxerxes Mnemon in 401 b. c., and amused himself by collecting travellers’ tales about the wonders of the East, are of very slight value.

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 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.

Arrian, a Graeco-Roman official of the second century after Christ, wrote a capital description of India, as well as an admirable 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.

The philosophical romance, composed in honour of Apollonios of Tyana by Philostratos ‘ the Athenian’ about 215-18 at the request of the empress Julia Domna, professes to give minute and interesting details of the observations made by the hero of the book in the course of a tour through north-western India, which according to Professor Petrie took place in the cold season of a.d. 43-4. If the details recorded could be trusted this account would be invaluable, but so much of the story is obviously fiction that no statement by the author can be accepted with confidence. It is not even certain that Apollonios visited India at all.

The Chinese ‘Father of history’, Ssŭ-ma-ch’ien, who  completed his work about 100 b.c., is the first of a long series of 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.

The stream of Chinese Buddhist pilgrims who continued for several centuries to visit India, which they regarded  as their Holy Land, begins with Fa-hien (Fa-hsien); who started on his travels in a.d. 399, and returned to China fifteen years later. The book in which he recorded his journeys has been preserved complete, and translated onceinto 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, Vikramāditya. Several other pilgrims left behind them works which contribute something to the elucidation of Indian history, and their testimony will be cited in due course.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 Western World, which has been translated into French, English, and German, extended from a.d. 629 to 645, 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 been recently effected. Although the chief historical value of Hiuen Tsang’s work consists in its contemporary description of political, religious, 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 Records,  though not quite so trustworthy. The learned mathematician and astronomer, Albērūnī, almost the only Muhammadan scholar who has ever taken the trouble to master Sanskrit, essentially a language of idolatrous unbelievers, when regarded from a Muslim point of view, entered India in the train of Mahmūd of Ghaznī. His work, descriptive of the country, and entitled  ‘An Enquiry into India’ (Taḥḳīḳ-i- Hind), which was finished in a.d. 1030, is of high value as an account of Hindu manners, science, and literature;  but contributes comparatively little information

which can be utilized for the purposes of political history.

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

The Muhammadan historians of India are valuable authorities for the history of the conquest by the armies of Islam; and the early Muslim travellers throw much light upon the condition of the...