138

THE ryDIAff ANTIQUAEr. [Mat, 187. but they had not progressed far south towards the centre of the Indian Peninsnla ; and doubt- less the Himalayas completely shut them in on the north. Apart from the above-cited express statement, we meet with very few collateral or incidental facts in the Institutes calculated to .support any inference as to the physical condi- tion of the country occupied by Mann's people- High ground is seldom alluded to. In one place the king is recommended to fix his abode in a champaign, country, abounding in grain, and having, if possible, a fortress of mountains (p. 167, 69). On the other hand, the writer more than once displays a familiarity with low-lying lands. The simile " As he na digs deep with a spade comes to a spring of water" bespeaks a prevailing state of things such, as obtainB in the valley of a great river (p. 45, 218), And the direction (p. 221, 245)— "If a contest arise between two villages concerning a boundary, let the king ascertain the limits in the month of Jy&shtha, when the landmarks are seen more distinctly," seems to point to a land which is Hooded during the season of the rains. All this accords very well with the supposition that those to whom the Dho/rma Sdalra was addressed lived principally, if not almost ex- clusively, in the upper half of the Gangetio trough. Although it is stated that the Aryans might dwell any win! r- I the two oceans, the Eastern and the Western, and therefore it may be inferred that they had in some degree extended themselves to these limits, still it is very clear that they had little or nothing to do with the sea. " A navigator of the ocean' was the subject of abhorrence (p. 72, 158), ami wafl ranked with a house-burner, a poisoner, and a .suborner of perjury. Sea-borne goods are how- ever mentioned] and in a passage of the — com- paratively speaking — more modern portion of the law relative to the charges which might he made at ferries, and for the conveyance of goods by water, we have ; " For a long passage the freight must be proportioned to places and times, but this must be understood of the pas- sages up and down rivers; at sea there a no settled freight" (p. 241, 406). Bnt the fact seems to be that the Indian Aryans in Mann's age were essentially an inland people, and had not yet reached the shores of Bengal and They had been settled long enough to suffice for the growth in different localities of tribes or sub-races respectively marked and distingnish- ed by known characteristics — an eletr development of caste already dwelt upon. Thm- the men of the Brahmarshi district (perhaps the neighbourhood of Dehli to the south) ha< quired a special reputation for courage, and it is not unlikely that they then represented the oldest and best Aryan blood.* Nepal ( and 234, and p. 138, 120) was famous 1 blankets ; but whether it was reckoned a fi « country or not, or whether the Aryans obtained any hold over it, there is no infor- mation afforded us from which we can j There were cities governed by Sudra kings 16, 61), resembling perhaps a small raj dependent of the Aryan, hut possessing a co- ordinate civilization. The Aryans them.-- niust also have been split up into various king- doms, or riijs ; for in Manu's dissertation on the art of war the king is instructed ho v. duct himself in certain conl neighbouring powers (p. I * ■ ~ . 64), and in the event of bis being pressed on all sides by hostile troops he is told to seek tin- | just and powerful monarch (p. 181, 174). A LEGEND OF OLD IlKUJ.hr. 1IV GJLUOUIt STCOEKELL, Bo. C.S. The accompanying popular account of the foundation of Be {grim and its subsequent capture by the If nsahn&n powers, although not historically accurate, may not be without interest to the student of the early history of niithern Mahratta Country. No doubt the Bel gain which along with ■ r was called Jirnasitapnra was what is spoken of further on as Old l> which we still find the remains of tin embank ment of the mud fori close fcoi milestone on the T)h:rw:id road ; and mile IVi mi ]:< Igarii on the Khanapnr road paas along the bS/ndoi a large tank, of which the name was NAgarakere, and ft doubtless, identical with the lake of N I • p. 183, 193; p. 19, l'j; and set- Cunningham, vol. I. p. 340.