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was followed by H.T. Colebrooke who specialized in the study of the
Vedas. With his Essay on the Vedas, he established that the Vedic
Hindus believed in the unity of the godhead. The Jones-Colebrooke
portrayal of the Vedic age was the first reconstructed golden
age of the Indian renaissance.6
Its importance for the rehabilitation of Hindus in their own esteem
cannot possibly be exaggerated.
Obviously, this "reconstructed
golden age of Indian renaissance" could not have been
sustained without a reconstruction of Indian history on the modern
Western pattern. Again, Sir William Jones made the beginning. Only
two clues were available to him - Alexander's invasion of India in
326 B.C. and the report of Megasthenes, Selecus Nicator's ambassador
at an Indian emperor's court, which could be reconstructed, though
the original had been lost. Megasthenes spoke of Patilbothra
which he located at the junction of the Ganges and Erranaboas.
Patilbothra could be identified with Patliputra, an earlier name of
Patna. But what about Erranaboas which could not possibly be treated
as a Greek distortion of the Son river? Sir Jones discovered a
reference to Son as Hiranyabahu which rendered into Greek could
become Erranaboas. Megasthenes had also spoken of Sandracottus. He
could well be Chandragupta, but Chandragupta was not known then. Sir
William found in an obscure political tragedy the story of
Chandragupta the adventurer who ruled in Patliputra. Thus Indian
history in modern form had been born.
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