Indian Antiquary Vol 04

SR No.: 032496
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 410
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 18 MB

Page 148

138
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[MAT, 1875.
but they had not progressed far south towards paratively speaking--more modern portion of the centre of the Indian Peninsula; and doubt- the law relative to the charges which might be less the Himalayas completely shut them in on made at ferries, and for the conveyance of the north. Apart from the above-cited express goods by water, we have : "For a long passage statement, we meet with very few collateral or the freight must be proportioned to places and incidental facts in the Institutes calculated to times, but this must be understood of the pas. support any inference as to the physical condi- sages up and down rivers; at sea there can be tion of the country occupied by Manu's people. no settled freight" (p. 241, 406). But the fact High ground is seldom alluded to. In one seems to be that the Indian Aryans in Manu's place the king is recommended to fix his age were essentially an inland people, and had abode in a champaign country, abounding in not yet reached the shores of Bengal and Orissa. yrain, and having, if possible, a fortress of They had been settled long enough to suffice mountains (p. 167, 69). On the other hand, the for the growth in different localities of tribes writer more than once displays a familiarity | or sub-races respectively marked and distinguishwith low-lying lands. The simile " As he whoed by known characteristics-an element in the digs deep with a spade comes to a spring of development of caste already dwelt upon. Thus water" bespeaks a prevailing state of things such the men of the Brahmarshi district (perhaps the as obtains in the valley of a great river (p. 45, neighbourhood of Dehli to the south) had ac218). And the direction (p. 221, 245)—"If & quired a special reputation for courage, and it is contest arise between two villages concerning a not unlikely that they then represented the boundary, let the king ascertain the limits in oldest and best Aryan blood.* Nepal (p. 82, 235 the month of Jyêshtha, when the landmarks are and 234, and p. 138, 120) was famous for its seen more distinctly," seems to point to a land blankets; but whether it was reckoned a foreign which is flooded during the season of the rains. country or not, or whether the Aryans had All this accords very well with the supposition obtained any hold over it, there is no inforthat those to whom the Dharma Sastra was mation afforded us from which we can judge. addressed lived principally, if not almost ex- There were cities governed by Sudra kings clusively, in the upper half of the Gangetic (p. 96, 61), resembling perhaps a small rdj, intrough. Although it is stated that the Aryans dependent of the Aryan, but possessing a comight dwell anywhere between the two oceans, ordinate civilization. The Aryans theraselves the Eastern and the Western, and therefore it must also have been split up into various kingmay be inferred that they had in some degree doms, or rajs : for in Manu's dissertation on the extended themselves to these limits, still it is art of war the king is instructed how to convery clear that they had little or nothing to do duct himself in certain contingencies towards with the sea. "A navigator of the ocean" was neighbouring powers (p. 167, 64), and in the the subject of abhorrence (p. 72, 158), and was event of his being pressed on all sides by hostile ranked with a house-burner, a poisoner, and a | troops he is told to seek the protection of a just suborner of perjury. Sea-borne goods are how- and powerful monarch (p. 181, 174). ever mentioned; and in a passage of the-com
A LEGEND OF OLD BELGÂM.
BY GILMOUR M'CORKELL, BO. C.S. The accompanying popular account of the what is spoken of further on as Old Belgam, foundation of Belgam and its subsequent of which we still find the remains of the capture by the Musalman powers, although not embankment of the mud fort close to the second historically accurate, may not be without some milestone on the Dharwad road; and about one interest to the student of the early history of mile from Belgam on the Khânâpur road we the Southern Mahratta Country.
pass along the band of a large tank, of which No doubt the Belgâm which along with the name was Någarakere, and it is, $&pûr was called Jirnabita pura was doubtless, identical with the lake of Naga -
* p. 183, 193; p. 19, 19; and see Cunningham, vol. I. p. 340.