The most adventurous emigrations, however, took place through the lunar dynasty, which, as observed above, originates from the solar, making in fact but one race and source for the whole. Leaving out of consideration the legend of Sudyumna's double transformation, the first prince of Pratisht́hána, a city south from Ayodhyá, was one of Vaivaswata's

children, equally with Ikshváku. The sons of Pururavas, the second of this branch, extended, by themselves or their posterity, in every direction: to the east to Káśí, Magadhá, Benares, and Behar; southwards to the Vindhya hills, and across them to Vidarbha or Berar; westwards along the Narmadá to Kuśasthali or Dwáraká in Guzerat; and in a north-westerly direction to Mathurá and Hastinápura. These movements are very distinctly discoverable amidst the circumstances narrated in the fourth book of the Vishńu Puráńa, and are precisely such as might be expected from a radiation of colonies from Ayodhyá. Intimations also occur of settlements in Banga, Kalinga, and the Dakhin; but they are brief and indistinct, and have the appearance of additions subsequent to the comprehension of those countries within the pale of Hinduism.

Besides these traces of migration and settlement, several curious circumstances, not likely to be unauthorized inventions, are hinted in these historical traditions. The distinction of castes was not fully developed prior to the colonization. Of the sons of Vaivaswata, some, as kings, were Kshatriyas; but one, founded a tribe of Brahmans, another became a Vaiśya, and a fourth a Śúdra. It is also said of other princes, that they established the four castes amongst their subjects 92. There are also various notices of Brahmanical Gotras, or families, proceding from Kshatriya races 93: and there are several indications of severe struggles between the two ruling castes, not for temporal, but for spiritual dominion, the right to teach the Vedas. This seems to be the especial purport of the inveterate hostility that prevailed between the Brahman Vaśisht́ha and the Kshatriya Viswámitra, who, as the Rámáyańa relates, compelled the gods to make him a Brahman also, and whose posterity became very celebrated as the Kauśika Brahmans. Other legends, again, such as Daksha's sacrifice, denote sectarial strife; and the legend of Paraśuráma reveals a conflict even for temporal authority between the two ruling castes. More or less weight will be attached to these conjectures, according to the temperament of different inquirers; but, even whilst

fully aware of the facility with which plausible deductions may cheat the fancy, and little disposed to relax all curb upon the imagination, I find it difficult to regard these legends as wholly unsubstantial fictions, or devoid of all resemblance to the realities of the past.