*

Calinga (the three shores), by which we are to understand, according to Mr. Wilford, the countries bordering on the coasts of the Bay of Bengal. According to the Puranas, he reigned twenty-three years, and was succeeded by his brother Crishna, who reigned eighteen years; to whom succeeded his son, who reigned fifty-six years. This brings us to the close of the third century. The last monarch of this dynasty, which appears to have occupied the throne of Magadha for the long period of 450 years, was Puliman or Puloma the pious, who, after conquering all India, put an end to his life, in the year 648, by drowning himself in the holy waters of the Ganges,

old fort, is engraven upon two brass plates, joined by a ring, to which is affixed the imperial seal representing Parvati with four arms, sitting between two elephants with uplifted trunks; below is the bull Nandi, and betweeen it and Parvati, the monarch's title, Sri-Carnna-Deva. The grant is dated the second year of his new era, and also of his reign, answering to A.D. 192.-As. Res. ix. 168.

#6 By Calinga, the Pauranics understand the sea-coasts at the summit of the Bay of Bengal, from Point Godavery to Cape Negrais. It is divided into three parts. Calinga Proper extends from Point Godavery to the western branch of the Ganges: the inhabitants of the country are called Colinge by Ælian and Pliny. Madhya Calinga (Middle Calinga) is in the Delta of the Ganges, and is corruptly called Modo-Galinca by Pliny. Moga Calinga extends from the eastern branch of the Ganges to Cape Negrais, in the country of the Mugs: this is obviously the Macco Calinge of Pliny. Calinga implies a country abounding with creeks."—As. Res., vi. 529.

†This would not make him contemporary with Shapoor, who did not ascend the throne till A.D. 241; so that Ferishta's statement strictly applies to neither of the Vicramadityas. According to Mr. Wilford, that title was borne by, or is applied to, no fewer than eight or nine different monarchs. The third Vicramaditya ascended the throne of Malwah, A.D. 441. He is supposed to have been the son of Bahram Gour, king of Persia, by an Indian princess, the daughter of Bas Deo, king of Canoje; and Mr. Wilford is disposed to identify him with Yezdijird II. The amours of Bahram and Gulendam are a popular subject all over Persia as well as India.Asiat. Res., vol. ix. pp. 147-152,

after the example of his grandfather, who closed a brilliant career of conquest by a similar act of fanaticism. From this monarch, the last of his race, India was called by the Chinese Poulomuen-koue, the country of Puliman ; while in the west, the fame of the Andhra princes occasioned the inhabitants of the Gangetic provinces to be denominated Andhra Hindoos. The Seven Carnas of this race are said to be held in the highest veneration all over India; and their fame has extended to the peninsula of Malacca, Carna, the Maha Rajah of India, being a favourite subject of the Malayan poetry.

Puliman was the last of the Magadha sovereigns who was at the same time Maha Rajah or Emperor of India. After his death, the Andhra Bhrityas seized upon the empire, and divided it among themselves. Patna, Benares, Allahabad, Maithila or Tirhoot, Oude, Kanouje, Carnadesa, Tumlook (Tamralipta) in

* The date of his conquests, according to the Chinese annals, was A.D. 621; that of his death, 648. He is called by the Chinese, Houlomien or Houlomiento.-Asiat. Res., vol. ix. p. 111.

+ The ancestors of Sri Carna Deva, the founder of the second Andhra dynasty, were of the Haihaya tribe, whose original seat was the district of Gauda, on the banks of the Nerbuddah, in Malwah. They afterwards became sovereigns of the country of Andhra on the Coromandel coast, extending from Nellore to the Godavery. Here, they were contemporaneous with the Canwa dynasty of Magadha kings at the beginning of the Christian era. At that time, Pliny represents the Andara kings as very powerful, possessing no fewer than thirty fortified cities and an army of 100,000 men, including 2000 cavalry with 1000 elephants. It is not clear, whether it was a collateral branch, or these same Andhras, who became possessed of the Gangetic kingdom. According to the Peutingerian Tables, the André-Indi lived along the banks of the Ganges; the name of the dynasty being apparently applied to the inhabitants of Eastern India, in the same manner as they were more anciently called Palibothrans.-Asiat. Res., vol. ix. p. 100104, 112.

Ib. vol. ix. pp 114, 106; vol. iv. p. 233.

Bengal, and Gaur, each became the capital of a petty monarchy. The sovereigns of Gaur or Bengal were the first that became sufficiently powerful to be troublesome neighbours; and they subsequently extended their empire as far as Benares. The city of Gaur or Gauda rose to be the first city in Gangetic India, succeeding to the fame, and probably the commercial greatness of Palibothra, the very name of which is almost effaced from every record, and even from the remembrance of the Hindoos. The kings of Gaur assumed the title of Maha Rajah so late as the fifteenth century. In the meantime, the Punjaub and western provinces appear to have been ravaged by the White Huns, who even seem to have established themselves in the northern parts of India.* Orissa, Gujerat, and the provinces of the Peninsula, had also their dynasties, their civil contests and petty revolutions, of which there are obscure traces in the legendary fables of the country. To these we shall have occasion to advert in reviewing the customs, religion, and antiquities of the Hindoos. The general history of India presents no remarkable feature, from the dismemberment of the Magadha empire in the seventh century, to the Mohammedan conquests in the beginning of the eleventh. Before, however, we proceed to review this

"They succeeded the Parthians, and seem to be the same with the Murundas, whose thirteen kings ruled in the northern parts of India, immediately after the Tusharas or Parthians. These are the Morunda of Ptolemy, who were masters of the whole country to the north of the Ganges, from Delhi to Gaur in Bengal. They are declared in the Puranas to be Mlech'has, impure tribes, and of course they were foreigners. Cosmas calls them White Huns."-Asiat. Res., ix. 113.

We reserve for another place, 'an account of the progress of Christianity in India. The tradition of the Syrian churches is, that the Apostle Thomas visited the Peninsula in person, and converted

second period, from which commences the modern history of Hindostan, we must take a retrospect of the commercial and political relations which connected India with the other countries of the ancient world.

From the earliest ages, there is reason to believe, that the productions of India were among the principal articles of mercantile traffic; and that to obtain and transport these, was the object of the first commercial adventurers. Even prior to the era of Moses, the communication with India was open; and among the various branches of Sabean and Phenician commerce, that which was carried on between India and the ports of the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, may be regarded, perhaps, as the most considerable and the most lucrative. It is probable, that the first traders would not venture beyond a coasting voyage; and the earliest entrepôts would therefore be on the shores of the Sea of Omaun, and at the mouths of the Tigris and Euphrates. A trade corresponding, in fact, to that which is still carried on between Bombay and Muscat, must have existed in all ages. As vessels coming with the monsoon for the Gulf of Persia, make Muscat, so, those bound for Hadramaut or Aden, run down their longitude to the coast of Africa. Here, too, therefore, Dr. Vincent has remarked, from the earliest periods that the monsoons were known to the Ara

the king of Meliapore, whence he proceeded to Cambala in China, and there he built a church! The bishop of the Malabar churches, by virtue of this apostolical succession, subscribes himself "metropolitan of Hindoo and China." It is probable, that the knowledge of the Christian religion was first propagated in Southern India from Alexandria. A primate of India was present at the council of Nice, A.D. 325; and in the following year, Frumentius was consecrated Primate of India by Athanasius, at Alexandria.

bian traders, would marts be established.* The Egyptians themselves were not navigators, but their country necessarily became the channel of a large portion of the Indian trade, as well as of that of Ethiopia; and Thebes and Coptos no doubt owed to that commerce their wealth and greatness. Another line of communication was from the port of Eziongeber at the head of the Elanitic Gulf, overland to Rhinocolura. "Thither," Dr. Robertson remarks, "all the commodities brought from India were conveyed overland, by a route much shorter and more practicable than that by which the productions of the East were carried, at a subsequent period, from the opposite shores of the Arabian Gulf to the Nile. At Rhinocolura they were re-shipped, and transported by an easy navigation to Tyre, and distributed through the world. This, as it is the earliest route of communication with India of which we have any authentic description, had so many advantages over any ever known before the modern discovery of a new course of navigation to the East, that the Phenicians could supply other nations with the productions of India in greater abundance, and at a cheaper rate, than any people of antiquity. To this circumstance, which for a considerable time secured to them a monopoly of that trade, was owing, not only the extraordinary wealth of individuals, which rendered the merchants of Tyre princes, and her traffickers the honourable of the earth; but the extensive power of the state itself, which first taught mankind what vast resources a commercial people possess, and what great exertions they are capable of making." +

Besides the maritime trade, a commercial commu

* Vincent's Periplus, i. 61. See Mod. Trav., Egypt, i. 63–68. † Isa. ch. xxiii, v. 8. Robertson's India, sect, 1. Rennell, xxxv.