34
nT.ST()l;' OF INDIA.
fB'^OK I.
U.C. 20.
Huns ami Hcythians.
Vicraina- ditya.
Roman in- tercourse with India.
'//
^nmJM
Silver Coin or Eucratides.' — From a specimen in British Hoseum.
under Tlieo(l<>tus about B.C. 200, had li(;ld sovereignty to a greater or les.s extent in India, a horde of Scythiaii.s, driven }>y the Hun.s from the 8hore.s of the Jax- aites, made their aj>])earance ab^ut a century l>efore the Chri.stian era, and gained a firm footing in the lower basin of the Indas. Here they fonned what has been called the Indo-Scythic province of Scinde, and were endeavouring, against a bold and often successful oj^position from the natives, to force their
way into the fertile ba.sin of the -"f^^i^W N',^, Ganges, when another horde ar-
rived from Persia about B.C. 26 under the leadership of Yu-chi, who gained for them a tem- porary ascendency, and became the founder of an Indo-Scythian dynasty. About the same time a native prince called Vicrama- ditya, who is one of the greatest heroes in Hindoo story, established an extensive sovereignty, which had the Nerbudda for its southern boundary; and at Oojein, his capital, held a court, remarkable not only for its splendour, but for the number of learned men whom the enlightened liberality of the sovereign had drawn around him. In Southern India, also, several native sovereignties appear to have been estab- lished as early as the Christian era. Among these the mo.st conspicuoas are Pandya, which occupied a large tract in the south-west of the peninsula, and one of whose kings, called Pandion, is said by Strabo to have sent an ambas.sador to the Roman emperor Augustus; and Chola, which, including the Camatic, extended over a large portion of the south-east of the peninsula, and reached north to the banks of the Godavery. They are now, however, little better than empty names, as they do not furnish during their long duration any facts so well authenticated as to entitle them to a place in history.
It is somewhat remarkable that the Romans, though they boasted of being the rulers of the world, never possessed an inch of ten*itoiy in India. On several occasions during their wars in the East, they came into collision with sovereigns whose dominions reached beyond the Indus, but the tide of Roman ^-ictoiy invariably stopped, as if it had met an insuperable barrier, before it reached that celebrated stream. It was not ignorance or indifference that led the Romans thus to contract the limits of their eastern frontier. On the contrary, several of their most popular wTiters had made them well acquainted with the geography and the leading physical features of India, while many of its peculiar products were exhibited for sale in their marts, and found eager pm-chasers, often at enormous prices. The}'^ must often have longed to be masters of a countr}-
' Eucratides, King of Bactria (about B.C. 181) was and appears to Lave been one of the most powerful contemporary with Mitbridates I., King of Parthia, of the Bactrian kings.
