Forlong - Rivers of Life

xviii
Preface.
could be long continued, and all the faiths and legends, past and present, freely
discussed.
A year and more was then spent in Eastern Bengal where, as Superintending
Engineer of a wide circle, extending all round Calcutta and even east to Dâka,
throngnout the Sunderbans and downwards towards Orîsa—Iong a sacred land of
Budhists, and now not less so of Hindus—the writer had a prolific field for all
religious and archeological studies.
From Calcutta. he was moved into Northern and Eastern Bengal, where during
a year or two he was able to visit most of the wild hilly retreats of the Sontâllis.
Munda, Kols, etc.—strange and ever-interesting “non-Aryan aborigines,” whom Aryan
and Drâvidian have alike pushed aside into almost impregnable fastnesses. Much
will be found in the present and future volumes regarding these old persistent nature
worshipers, as well as the inhabitants of the Tibetan highlands, to the borders of
which, at Dârjêling, some 8000 feet high, the author’s charge extended. But
nothing could exceed in interest the whole Gangetic valley around his head-
quarters. The Provinces of Bihār and Bānāres were the nucleus of the great
Magadhâ Empire, where 300 years B.C. Megasthenes the Greek wrote what enables us
to check the misty chronology of ancient Indian history. Here the archeologist can
study the half-mythical stories of the great cities of Kbnoj, Kâsi, etc., on his west
and to the eastward seek for Gour and other capitals of early Bengal amid the
swamps and jnngles of the Ganges. But to the student of Religions all around is
classic ground, and a land on which one-third of the human race still look with
affectionate reverence. In the north, by the little lake of Kapila Vasta, not far from
Ayodhya, the holy Capital of Rāma and Sêta, “the Great Teacher” was born, and from
there he fled as a solitary pious man to give his great lessons to half of Asia. Here
too is the sacred mound and steps of Vaisâli, where he had often preached and spent
thoughtful days with his favourite disciple Ananda; and beyond it, to the far north,
may be seen the Devisthān—suitable name for another great stupa—where by Kosianagara
he rested from his labors and embraced Nirvana.
Near the southern water-sheds of the great river lie the sacred hills of Rājagriha,
and the forests where, under an ever holy Bodh tree, the pious ascetik had so long
pondered over all the miseries and unsatisfactoriness of life. Here for seven years he
had thought only of past faiths and his own salvation, but from here also he had
roused himself above selfish aims and determined to be “up and doing,” and dedicate
the rest of his life to advance the happiness and best interests of humanity. It was