CHAPTER XIII.

THE INDIAN VERNACULARS AND THEIR LITERATURE.

The foregoing chapters have summarized the successive The three

settlements of Asiatic peoples on the south of the Himalayas , stages mr 1 . . ' Indian

and their struggles for supremacy in India . I he remainder of history :

this volume will deal with altogether different aspects ofIndian history. For the three essential stages in that historyare—first, the long struggle for India by the races of Asia Strugglenarrated in the previous pages; second, a shorter struggle forIndia by European nations; third, the consolidation of India Asiaticunder British rule. The second and third phases of Indian races ;history occupy the following chapters. From the great contest 0?) b y theof five thousand years, England emerged the victor. We nat ; ons .have seen how the tidal waves of Asiatic populations— con-

pre-Aryan, Aryan, Scythic, Afghan , and Mughal —swept across solidationIndia from the north; and how Hindu and Muhammadan, ° nd g“ aMughal and Maratha, fought for the supreme power on the BritishIndian continent. The chapter which follows the present rule 'one will exhibit the briefer, but not less eventful, struggles ofthe European maritime powers to enter India from the sea.

The conquest of India by the British, and an account of theadministration which they have established throughout itswidely-separated Provinces, will conclude this volume.

The inroads under Alexander the Great and his successors Greekhad proved momentary episodes,—episodes, moreover, of anAsiatic rather than of a European type. The Greek and and semi _Grasco - Bactrian hosts entered India from the north; they Asiatic ineffected no settlements beyond the frontier Province ; and the ty P e-permanent element in their forces consisted of Asiatic ratherthan of European troops. The civilisation and organization ofIndia , from a prehistoric period many thousand years beforeChrist down to the 15th century a.d., had been essentially thework of Asiatic races. Since the end of that century, whenthe Portuguese landed on the Malabar coast, the course ofIndian history has been profoundly influenced by European nations.