value, of its having attracted Sesostris. ambitious monarchs. The narrative of Arrian shows that this commerce was then regulated by sounder principles, and carried on in a more civilized manner, than it was fifteen centuries afterwards when Vasco de Gama first visited the shores of India. As numerous elements of wealth and luxury, usually found scattered over various regions of the earth, were the natural products of Hindustan, it might be expected that a country so highly favoured should, through the mists which over-hang the dawn of history, have loomed forth imposingly in very ancient times as the special abode of luxury and refinement.
But while not admitting the extravagant descriptions in the Hindu poets and historians of the glory and wealth of their country, any more than the whole of the Egyptian story of Sesostris, there is no reason to doubt that the civilization of India dates from a period as early as that of Egypt, and that the fame of its riches may have led to more than one attempt to achieve its conquest. The Râmâyana, one of the most ancient Hindu books, where it informs us, in the glowing language of its poetry, that Ayodhya[1] (Oude), one of the leading commercial cities of India, was "filled with merchants and artificers of all kinds"; that "gold, precious stones, and jewels were there found in great abundance"; that "every one wore costly garments, bracelets, and necklaces"; that "the town always resounded with the noise and bustle of men and women, like the shouts of contending armies"; that "the great men were ever going to and fro upon chariots, elephants, and prancing steeds"; and that "the
- ↑ Heeren, vol. ii. p. 227, in his "Asiatic Researches," believes this city to have been founded from 2,000 to 1,500 years before the Christian era.
