Page:History of India Vol 1.djvu/252

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
202
EXPANSION OF THE HINDUS

the extreme limit of the Hindu world about the sixth century before Christ.

That portions of Southern India had not only been colonized by this date, but had become the seats of Hindu kingdoms and of distinct schools of laws and learning, is proved by the writings of Baudhayana. Baudhayana himself may have been a southerner, at any rate he takes care to mention the peculiar laws and customs of Southern India. We will cite one passage:—

"There is a dispute regarding five practices, in the south and in the north.

"We will explain those peculiar to the south.

"They are to eat in the company of an uninitiated person, to eat in the company of one's wife, to eat stale food, to marry the daughter of a maternal uncle or of a paternal aunt.

"Now the customs peculiar to the north are: to deal in wool, to drink rum, to sell animals that have teeth in the upper and in the lower jaws, to follow the trade of arms, and to go to sea.

"He who follows these practices in any other country than where they prevail commits sin.

"For each of these customs the rule of the country should be the authority."

Let us now take leave of Baudhayana and come to the next Sutrakara of India. If Baudhayana be supposed to have flourished in the sixth century before Christ, Apastamba probably flourished in the fifth. There can be little doubt that Apastamba lived and taught in the Andhra country, and the limits of that