life performs but half his duty. There is another and a sadder portion of Hindu history, and it is necessary that this portion of the story, too, should be faithfully told.
We have said before that the history of Ancient India divides itself into several distinct and long periods or eras, marked by great historical events. We shall begin with the earliest period of India's history, that of Aryan settlements in the Panjab. The hymns of the Rig-Veda furnish us with the materials for a history of this period, which we may call the Vedic, and which we may approximately date from 2000 to 1400 B.C., or later according to some authorities.
In this priceless volume, the Rig-Veda, we find the Hindu Aryans as conquerors and settlers on the banks of the Indus and its five branches; and India beyond the Sutlaj was almost unknown to them. They were a conquering race, full of the self-assertion and vigour of a young national life, with a strong love of action and a capacity for active enjoyments. They were, in this respect, far removed from the contemplative and passive Hindus of later days; they rejoiced in wealth and cattle and pasture-fields; and, with their strong right arm, they won by force new possessions and realms from the aborigines of the soil, who vainly struggled to maintain their own against the invincible conquerors. Thus the period was one of wars and conflicts with the aborigines; and the Aryan victors triumphantly boast of their victories in their hymns, and implore their gods to bestow on them wealth and new possessions and to destroy the barbarians.
