sula,  one-third  as  large  as  Europe,  has  been
divided  among  a  multitude  of  distinct  tribes.  The  little
kingdoms  warred  with  each  other ;  and  now  and  then
some  greater  chief  would  master  his  neighbors  on  every
side,  and  build  up  some  brilliant  dynasty,  like  the
Maurya  or  the  Gupta,  or  in  later  times  the  Mahratta,
and  perhaps  organize  a  wide  movement  for  Hindu  in-
dependence :  all  of  which  would  last  a  little  while,  and
then  disappear,  like  cirrus  streamers  in  the  blue  deeps
of  the  Indian  sky,  or  fleeting  thoughts  in  the  heaven  of
Hindu  dreams.  It  was  the  mutual  jealousy  and  strife
of  the  Hindu  kings,  not  the  lack  of  military  spirit
nor  of  military  resources,  that  made  this  great  people
a  prey  to  the  invading  Moslem  from  the  eleventh  to
the  fourteenth  centuries  of  our  era.  A  glut  of  food
in  one  English  province  of  India  has  often  occurred
at  the  same  time  with  a  famine  in  an  adjoining  one ;'
yet  the  intercourse  between  them  has  been  insufficient
to  make  the  abundance  of  the  one  supply  the  lack  of

1  The  Ramayana  has  been  translated  into  Italian  by  Gorresio,  and  into  French  by
Fauche.  Monier  Williams  has  given  a  careful  abstract  of  it,  as  also  of  the  Mahabharata,
in  his  admirable  little  volume  on  Indian  Epic  Poetry,  and  a  new  English  rhymed  version
by  Griffith  is  in  course  of  publication.  Many  of  the  finest  episodes  in  both  poems  will  be
found  translated  in  Jolowicz's  OrientalUche  Poesie-


62  RELIGION   AND    LIFE.
