Book 7 — CHAPTER 1
Reading edition
Limits of Jaisalmer.
—Jaisalmer is the modern name of a tract of country comprehended, according to ancient geography, in Marusthali, the desert of India. It is termed Mer in the traditional nomenclature of this region, from being a rocky (mer) oasis in the heart of the sandy desert, interesting both from its physical features and its position as the Ultima Thule of independent Hinduism. Yet, however entitled to regard from its local peculiarities or its products, the history of the tribe which inhabits it presents a still more engrossing subject for investigation.
The Bhatti Tribe.
—This tribe is the Bhatti, a branch of the Yadu or Jadon race, whose power was paramount in India three thousand years ago; and the prince now governing this distant [217] corner of India claims descent from those Yadu kings who ruled from the Yamuna to the ‘world’s end,’
at that remote period.
It were preposterous to expect to find, in the annals of a people so subject to the vicissitudes of fortune, an unbroken series of historical evidence in support of this ancestry; but they have preserved links of the chain which indicate original affinities. In tracing the Yadu-Bhatti history, two hypotheses alternately present themselves to our minds, each of which rests upon plausible 1170grounds; the one supposing the Bhattis to be of Scythic, the other of Hindu origin. This incongruity may be reconciled by presuming the co-mixture of the two primitive races; by enlarging our views, and contemplating the barrier, which in remote ages separated Scythia and India, as ideal; and admitting that the various communities, from the Caspian to the Ganges, were members of one grand family, having a common language and common faith,[2] in that ancient central empire whose existence has been contended for and denied by the first names in science;[3] the Bharatavarsha of the Hindus, the Indo-Scythic empire of king Bharat, son of Budha, the ancestor of the Yadu-Bhattis, now confined to a nook of the desert.[4]
It would be vain to speculate upon the first colonization of India proper by the Rajkula, or ‘royal tribes.’ It appears to have possessed an indigenous population prior to the races of Surya, or Indu, though the genealogies which give the origin of these degraded races of Kabas,[5] Bhils, Meras, Gonds, etc., assert 1171that they were all from the same stem, and that their political debasement was the effect of moral causes. But as there is no proof of this, we must attribute the fable to the desire of the Brahman [218] archaeologist to account for the origin of all things. Modern inquiries into these matters have been cramped by an erroneous and contracted view of the power of this ancient people, and the direction of that power. It has been assumed that the prejudices originating in Muslim conquests, which prevented the Hindu chieftain from crossing the forbidden waters of the Attock, and still more from “going down to the sea in ships,” had always existed. But were it not far more difficult to part with erroneous impressions than to receive new and correct views, it would be apparent that the first of these restrictions is of very recent origin, and on the other hand, that the Hindus of remote ages possessed great naval power, by which communication must have been maintained with the coasts of Africa,[6] Arabia, and Persia, as well as the Australian Archipelago.[7] It is ridiculous,
Since Mr. M. wrote, the revelation of the architectural antiquities in these isles, consequent to British conquests, establishes the fact that they were colonized by the Suryas, whose mythological and heroic history is sculptured in their edifices and maintained in their writings. Nor should we despair that similar discoveries may yet disclose the link which of yore connected India with Egypt, and to which Ceylon was but the first stepping-stone. That Rama possessed great naval means is beyond doubt, inherited from his ancestor Sagara ‘the sea-king,’ twenty generations before the hero of Lanka, which place I have long imagined to be Ethiopia; whence ancient writers assert Egypt to have had her institutions, and that the Ethiopians were of Indian origin. Cuvier, quoting Syncellus, even assigns the reign of Amenophis as the epoch of the colonization of Ethiopia from India.—P. 180 of his ‘Discours,’ etc. [For early Hindu voyages to Java and the neighbouring region see Smith, HFA, 259 ff.; BG, i. Part i. 489 ff.]] 1172with all the knowledge now in our possession, to suppose that the Hindus always confined themselves within their gigantic barriers, the limits of modern India. The cosmography of the Puranas, imperfect and puerile as it is, and some of the texts of Manu, afford abundant evidence of an intimate intercourse between the countries from the Oxus to the Ganges; and even in their allegories, we trace fresh streams of knowledge flowing into India from that central region, stigmatized in latter days as the land of the Barbarian (Mlechchha). Manu corroborates the Puranas, from which we infer the fact that in distant ages one uniform faith extended from Sakadvipa, the continent of the Sakae, to the Ganges.[8] These observations [219] it is necessary to premise before we attempt, by following the tide of Yadu migration during the lapse of thirty centuries, to trace them from Indraprastha, 1173Suryapura, Mathura, Prayaga, Dwarka, Jadu-ka-dang (the mountains of Jud), Bahra, Gajni in Zabulistan; and again refluent into India, at Salbahana or Salpura in the Panjab, Tanot, Derawar, Lodorva in the desert, and finally Jaisalmer, founded in S. 1212, or A.D. 1156.
Having elsewhere descanted at length on the early history of the Yadus,[9] we may refer those who are likely to take an interest in this discussion to that paper, and proceed at once to glean what we can from the native annals before us, from the death of their leader, Hari-Krishna, to the dispersion of the Yadus from India. The bare fact of their migration altogether out of India proper proves that the original intercourse, which conducted Budha, the patriarch of the Yadu race, into India[10] (where he espoused Ila, a princess of the Surya race, and by whom his issue was multiplied), was not forgotten, though fifty generations had elapsed from the patriarchal Budha to Hari—to whom and the chronicle we return.
Early Legends.
—“Prayaga
is the cradle of the Yadus who are Somavansa (of the lunar race). Thence Mathura founded by Pururavas remained for ages the seat of power. The name of Jadon (Yadu), of whom there were fifty-six tribes,
became famous in the world, and of this race was the mighty Hari-Krishna, who founded Dwarka.”
The grand international conflicts amongst the “fifty-six Yadu tribes,” at Kurukshetra, and subsequently at Dwarka, are sufficiently known to the reader of Hindu history [220], and may 1174be referred to elsewhere.[13] These events are computed to have happened about 1100 years before Christ. On the dispersion of these races many abandoned India, and amongst these, two of the many sons of Krishna. This deified leader of the Yadus had eight wives, and the offspring of the first and seventh, by a singular fate, now occupy what may be termed the outposts of Hinduism.[14]
Rukmini was the senior of these wives; and the eldest of her sons was Pradyumna, who was married to a princess of Vidarbha; she bore him two sons, Aniruddha and Vajranabha, and from the latter the Bhattis claim descent. Vajra had two sons, Sankhanabha and Khira.[15]
“When the Jadons were exterminated in the conflict at Dwarka, and Hari had gone to heaven, Vajra was on his way from Mathura to see his father, but had only marched twenty coss (forty miles), when he received intelligence of that event, which had swept away his kindred. He died upon the spot, when Nabha was elected king and returned to Mathura, but Khira pursued his journey to Dwarka.
“The thirty-six tribes of Rajputs hitherto oppressed by the Yadus, who had long held universal dominion, now determined to be revenged. Nabha was compelled to fly the holy city [Dwarka]; he became prince of Marusthali in the west.
“Thus far from the Bhagavat” (says the Bhatti chronicler), and I continue the history of the Bhattis, by the Brahman Sukhdharma of Mathura.
“Nabha had issue Prithibahu.
“Khira had two sons, Jareja and Judhbhan.[16]
“Judhbhan was on a pilgrimage; the goddess heard his vows; 1175she awoke him from his sleep, and promised whatever he desired. ‘Give me land that I may inhabit,’ said the youth; ‘Rule in these hills,’ replied the goddess, and disappeared. When Judhbhan awoke, and was yet pondering on the vision of the night, a confused noise assailed him; and looking out, he discovered that the prince of the country had just died without issue, and they were disputing who should succeed him. The prime minister said, ‘he dreamed that a descendant of Krishna had arrived at Bahra,’[17] and proposed [221] to seek him out and invest him as their prince. All assented, and Judhbhan was elected king. He became a great prince, had a numerous progeny, and the place of their abode was henceforth styled Jadu-ka-dang, ‘the mountains of Jadu.’
“Prithibahu (‘the arm of the earth’), son of Nabha, prince 1176of Marusthali, inherited the insignia of Sri-Krishna with the regal umbrella (chhatri) made by Viswakarma. He had a son Bahubal (‘strong arm’), who espoused Kamalavati, daughter of Vijaya Singh, prince of Malwa, who gave in dower (daeja)[18] one thousand horses of Khorasan, one hundred elephants, pearls, gems, and gold innumerable, and five hundred handmaids, with chariots and bedsteads of gold. The Puar (Pramar) Kamalavati became the chief queen and bore her lord one son,
“Bahu, killed by a fall from his horse; he left one son,
“Subahu, who was poisoned by his wife, a daughter of Mand Raja, Chauhan of Ajmer; he left a son,
“Rajh, who reigned twelve years. He was married to Subhag Sundari, daughter of Ber Singh, prince of Malwa. Having, when pregnant, dreamed that she was delivered of a white elephant, the astrologers, who interpreted this as an indication of greatness, desired he might be named Gaj:[19] as he approached manhood, the coco-nut came from Judhbhan, prince of Purabdes (the eastern), and was accepted. At the same time tidings arrived that from the shores of the ocean, the barbarians (Mlechchha), who had formerly attacked Subahu,[20] were again advancing, 1177having Farid Shah of Khorasan at [222] the head of four lakhs of horse, from whom the people fled in dismay. The Raja sent scouts to obtain accurate intelligence, and marched to Hariau to meet him; while the foe encamped two coss from Kunjshahr.[21] A battle ensued, in which the invader was defeated with the loss 1178of thirty thousand men, and four thousand on the part of the Hindus. But the foeman rallied, and Raja Rajh, who again encountered him, was wounded and died just as prince Gaj returned with Hansavati, his bride, daughter of Judhbhan of the east. In two battles the king of Khorasan was vanquished, when he obtained an auxiliary in the king of Rum (Romi-pati), to establish the Koran and the law of the prophet in infidel lands. While the armies of the Asuras were thus preparing their strength, Raja Gaj called a council of ministers. There being no stronghold of importance, and it being impossible to stand against numbers, it was determined to erect a fortress amidst the mountains of the north. Having summoned his friends to his aid, he sought counsel of the guardian goddess of his race; who [223] foretold that the power of the Hindus was to cease, but commanded him to erect a fort and call it Gajni. While it was approaching completion, news came that the kings of Rum and Khorasan were near at hand:
Rūmī-pat, Khorāsān-pat, haya, gaya, pākhar, pāī,
Chinta teri, chit lagi; sūna Jadpat Rāē.[22]
The stick wounded the drum of the Jadon prince; the army was formed, gifts were distributed, and the astrologers were commanded to assign such a moment for marching as might secure the victory.
“Thursday (Brihaspati) the 13th of Magh, the enlightened half of the moon, when one ghari[23] of the day had fled, was the auspicious hour; and the drum of departure sounded. That day he marched eight coss, and encamped at Dulapar. The combined kings advanced, but in the night the Shah of Khorasan died of indigestion. When it was reported to the king of Rum (Shah Sikandar Rumi) that Shah Mamrez was dead, he became alarmed and said, ‘while we mortals have grand schemes in hand, He above has other views for us.’ Still his army advanced like waves of the ocean; caparisons and chains clank on the backs of elephants, while instruments of war resound through the host. Elephants move like walking mountains; the sky is black with 1179clouds of dust; bright helms reflect the rays of the sun. Four coss (eight miles) separated the hostile armies. Raja Gaj and his chieftains performed their ablutions, and keeping the Joginis[24] in their rear, advanced to the combat. Each host rushed on like famished tigers; the earth trembled; the heavens were overcast; nor was aught visible in the gloom but the radiant helm. War-bells resound; horses neigh; masses of men advance on each other, like the dark rolling clouds of Bhadon. Hissing speeds the feathered dart; the lion roar of the warriors is re-echoed; the edge of the sword deluges the ground with blood; on both sides the blows resound on the crackling bones. Here was Judhrae, there the Khans and Amirs, as if Time had encountered his fellow. Mighty warriors strew the earth; heroes fall in the cause of their lords. The army of the Shah fled; he left twenty-five thousand souls entangled in the net of destruction; he abandoned elephants and horses, and even his throne. Seven thousand Hindus lay dead on the field. The drum of victory resounded, and the Jadon returned triumphant to his capital [224].
“On Sunday, the 3rd of Baisakh, the spring season (Vasant), the Rohini Nakshatra, and Samvat Dharmaraja (Yudhishthira) 3008,[25] seated on the throne of Gajni, he maintained the Jadon race. With this victory his power became firm: he conquered all the countries to the west, and sent an ambassador to Kashmir to call its prince Kandrapkel[26] to his presence. But the prince refused the summons: he said the world would scoff at him if he attended the stirrup of another without being first worsted in fight. Raja Gaj invaded Kashmir; and married the daughter of its prince, by whom he had a son, called Salbahan.
“When this child had attained the age of twelve, tidings of another invasion came from Khorasan. Raja Gaj shut himself up for three entire days in the temple of Kuladevi:[27] on the fourth day the goddess appeared and revealed to him his destiny; the Gajni would pass from his hands, but that his posterity would 1180reinherit it, not as Hindus but as Muslims; and directed him to send his son Salbahan amongst the Hindus of the east, there to erect a city to be named after him. She said that he would have fifteen sons, whose issue would multiply; ‘that he (Raja Gaj) would fall in the defence of Gajni, but would gain a glorious reward hereafter.’
“Having heard his fate revealed Raja Gaj convened his family and kin, and on pretence of a pilgrimage to Juala-mukhi,[28] he caused them to depart, with the prince Salbahan, for the east.
“Soon after the foe approached within five coss of Gajni. Leaving therein his uncle Sahideo for its defence, Raja Gaj marched to meet him. The king of Khorasan divided his army into five divisions; the Raja formed his into three: a desperate conflict ensued, in which both the king and the Raja were slain. The battle lasted five pahars,[29] and a hundred thousand Mirs and thirty thousand Hindus strewed the field. The king’s son invested Gajni; for thirty days it was defended by Sahideo, when he performed the Sakha,[30] and nine thousand valiant men gave up their lives.
Sālivāhana.
—“When tidings of this fatal event were conveyed to Salbahan, for twelve days the ground became his bed.
He at length reached the Panjab, where he fixed on a spot with abundance of water, and having collected his clansmen around him, he laid the foundation of a city which he named after himself, Salbahanpur. The surrounding [225] Bhumias attended, and acknowledged his supremacy. Seventy-two years of the era of Vikrama had elapsed when Salbahanpur was founded, upon Sunday, the 8th of the month of Bhadon.
1181“Salbahan conquered the whole region of the Panjab. He had fifteen sons, who all became Rajas: namely, Baland, Rasalu, Dharmangad, Vacha, Rupa, Sundar, Lekh, Jaskaran, Nema, Mat, Nipak, Gangau, Jagau; all of whom, by the strength of their own arms, established themselves in independence.
“The coco-nut from Raja Jaipal Tuar was sent from Delhi, and accepted.[33] Baland proceeded to Delhi, whose prince advanced to meet him. On his return with his bride, Salbahan determined to redeem Gajni from the foe and avenge his father’s death. He crossed the Attock to encounter Jalal, who advanced at the head of twenty thousand men. Crowned with victory, he regained possession of Gajni, where he left Baland, and returned to his capital in the Panjab; he soon after died, having ruled thirty-three years and nine months.
Bāland.
—“Baland succeeded. His brothers had now established themselves in all the mountainous tracts of the Panjab. But the Turks
began rapidly to increase, and to subjugate all beneath their sway, and the lands around Gajni were again in their power. Baland had no minister, but superintended in person all the details of his government. He had seven sons: Bhatti, Bhupati, Kalar, Janj,
Sarmor, Bhainsrekha, Mangreo. The second son Bhupati (
i.e.
lord of the earth) had a son, Chakito, from whom is descended the Chakito (Chagatai) tribe [226].
1182“Chakito had eight sons, namely, Deosi, Bharu, Khemkhan, Nahar, Jaipal,[37] Dharsi, Bijli Khan, Shah Samand.
“Baland, who resided at Salbahanpur, left Gajni to the charge of his grandson Chakito; and as the power of the barbarian (Mlechchha) increased, he not only entertained troops of that race, but all his nobles were of the same body. They offered, if he would quit the religion of his fathers, to make him master of Balkh, Bokhara, where dwelt the Usbek race, whose king had no offspring but one daughter. Chakito married her, and became king of Balkh, Bokhara, and lord of twenty-eight thousand horse. Between Balkh and Bokhara runs a mighty river, and Chakito was king of all from the gate of Balakhshan to the face of Hindustan; and from him is descended the tribe of Chakito Mongols.[38]
“Kalar, third son of Baland, had eight sons, whose descendants are designated Kalar.[39] Their names were, Sheodas, Ramdas, Aso, Kistna, Sama, Ganga, Jassa, Bhaga; almost all of whom became Musalmans. They are a numerous race, inhabiting the mountainous countries west of the river,[40] and notorious robbers.
1183“Janj, the fourth son, had seven sons: Champa, Gokul, Mehraj, Hansa, Bhadon, Rasa, Jaga, all whose issue bore the name of Janj;[41] and in like manner did the other sons become the patriarchs of tribes.
Bhatti.
—“Bhatti succeeded his father Baland. He conquered fourteen princes, and added [227] their fortunes to his own. Among his effects he reckoned twenty-four thousand mules
laden with treasure, sixty thousand horse, and innumerable foot. As soon as he mounted the
gaddi
, he assembled all his forces at Lahore preparatory to the
tika-daur
destined against Birbhan Baghel, lord of Kanakpur. Birbhan fell in the battle which ensued, at the head of forty thousand men.
“Bhatti had two sons, Mangal Rao and Masur Rao. With Bhatti, the patronymic was changed, and the tribe thenceforth was distinguished by his name.
Mangal.
—“Mangal Rao succeeded, but his fortune was not equal to that of his fathers. Dhundi, king of Ghazni, with a mighty force, invaded Lahore;
nor did Mangal Rao oppose him, but with his eldest son fled into the wilds on the banks of
1184
the river. The foe then invested Salbahanpur, where resided the family of the Raja; but Masur Rao escaped and fled to the Lakhi Jungle.
There being only a cultivating peasantry in this tract, he overcame them, and became master of the country. Masur Rao had two sons, Abhai Rao and Saran Rao. The elder, Abhai Rao, brought the whole Lakhi Jungle under his control, and his issue, which multiplied, became famous as the Aboharia Bhattis.
Saran quarrelled with and separated from his brother, and his issue descended to the rank of cultivators, and are well known as the Saran Jats.
“Mangal Rao, the son of Bhatti, and who abandoned his kingdom, had six sons: Majam Rao, Kalarsi, Mulraj, Sheoraj, Phul, Kewala.
“When Mangal Rao fled from the king, his children were secreted in the houses of his subjects. A Bhumia named Satidas, of the tribe of Tak,[48] whose ancestors had been reduced from 1185power and wealth by the ancestors of the Bhatti prince, determined to avenge himself, and informed the king that some of the children were concealed in [228] the house of a banker (sahukar). The king sent the Tak with a party of troops, and surrounded the house of Sridhar, who was carried before the king, who swore he would put all his family to death if he did not produce the young princes of Salbahana. The alarmed banker protested he had no children of the Raja’s, for that the infants who enjoyed his protection were the offspring of a Bhumia, who had fled, on the invasion, deeply in his debt. But the king ordered him to produce them; he demanded the name of the village, sent for the Bhumias belonging to it, and not only made the royal infants of Salbahana eat with them, but marry their daughters. The banker had no alternative to save their lives but to consent: they were brought forth in the peasant’s garb, ate with the husbandmen (Jats), and were married to their daughters. Thus the offspring of Kalarrae became the Kalhora Jats; those of Mundraj and Sheoraj, the Mudna and Seora Jats; while the younger boys, Phul and Kewala, who were passed off as a barber (Nai) and a potter (Kumhar), fell into that class.[49]
“Mangal Rao, who found shelter in the wilds of the Gara, crossed that stream and subjugated a new territory. At this period, the tribe of Baraha[50] inhabited the banks of the river; beyond them were the Buta Rajputs of Butaban.[51] In Pugal dwelt the Pramara;[52] in Dhat the Sodha[53] race; and the Lodra[54] Rajputs in Lodorva. Here Mangal Rao found security, and 1186with the sanction of the Sodha prince, he fixed his future abode in the centre of the lands of the Lodras, the Barahas, and the Sodhas.[55] On the death of Mangal Rao, he was succeeded by
“Majam Rao, who escaped from Salbahanpur with his father. He was recognized by all the neighbouring princes, who sent the usual presents on his accession, and the [229] Sodha prince of Umarkot made an offer of his daughter in marriage, which was accepted, and the nuptials were solemnized at Umarkot. He had three sons, Kehar, Mulraj,[56] and Gogli.
Kehar Rāo.
—“Kehar became renowned for his exploits. Hearing of a caravan (kafila) of five hundred horses going from Aror
to Multan, he pursued them with a chosen band disguised
1187
as camel merchants, and came up with his prey across the Panjnad,
where he attacked and captured it, and returned to his abode. By such exploits he became known, and the coco-nut (
nariyal
) was sent to Majam Rao, and his two elder sons, by Alansi Deora, of Jalor.
The nuptials were celebrated with great splendour, and on their return Kehar laid the foundation of a castle, which he named Tanot in honour of Tana [or Tanuja] Devi. Ere it was completed, Rao Majam died.
Kehar Rāo.
—“Kehar succeeded. On his accession, Tanot was attacked by Jasrath, chief of the Barahas,
because it was erected on the bounds of his tribe; but Mulraj defended it, and the Barahas were compelled to retire.
“On Mangalwar (Tuesday), the full-moon of Magh, S. 787[61] (A.D. 731), the fortress of Tanot was completed, and a temple erected to Tana-Mata. Shortly after a treaty of peace was formed 1188with the Barahas, which was concluded by the nuptials of their chief with the daughter of Mulraj [230].”
Having thus fairly fixed the Yadu Bhatti chieftain in the land of Maru, it seems a proper point at which to close this initiatory chapter with some observations on the diversified history of this tribe, crowded into so small a compass; though the notes of explanation, subjoined as we proceeded, will render fewer remarks requisite, since with their help the reader may draw his own conclusions as to the value of this portion of the Bhatti annals, which may be divided into four distinct epochs:
Recapitulation of Bhatti History.
—1. That of Hari, the ancestor of the Yadu race.
2. Their expulsion, or the voluntary abandonment of India by his children, with their relations of the Harikula and Pandu races, for the countries west of the Indus; their settlements in Marusthali; the founding of Gajni, and combats with the kings of Rum and Khorasan.
3. Their expulsion from Zabulistan, colonization of the Panjab, and creation of the new capital of Salbahanpur.
4. Their expulsion from the Panjab, and settlement in Mer, the rocky oasis of Maru, to the erection of Tanot.
It is the more unnecessary to enter into greater details on these outlines of the early Yadu history, since the subject has been in part treated elsewhere.[62] A multiplicity of scattered facts and geographical distinctions fully warrants our assent to the general truth of these records, which prove that the Yadu race had dominion in central Asia, and were again, as Islamism advanced, repelled upon India. The obscure legend of their encounters with the allied Syrian and Bactrian kings would have seemed altogether illusory, did not evidence exist that Antiochus the Great was slain in these very regions by an Indo-Scythian prince, called by the Greek writers Sophagasenas: a name in all probability compounded from Subahu and his grandson Gaj (who might have used the common affix of sena), the Yadu princes of Gajni, who are both stated to have had conflicts with the Bactrian (Khorasan) kings.
Sistan (the region of cold, siya)[63] and both sides of the valley 1189were occupied in the earliest periods by another branch of the Yadus; for the Sind-Samma dynasty was descended from Samba (which like Yadu became a patronymic)—of which the Greeks made Sambos—and one of whose descendants opposed Alexander in his progress down the Indus. The capital of this dynasty was Samma-ka-kot, or Samanagari, yet existing on the lower Indus, and which was corrupted into Minnagara by the Greeks [231].[64]
Ancient Sites in Jaisalmer.
—It is an interesting hypothesis, that would make the Chagatais descendants of the Yadus.
In like manner, Bappa, the ancestor of the Ranas of Mewar, abandoned Central India after establishing his line in Chitor, and retired to Khorasan. All this proves that Hinduism prevailed in these distant regions, and that the intercourse was unrestricted between Central Asia and India. We have undiscovered fields of inquiry in Transoxiana, and in the still more accessible region of the Panjab, where much exists to reward the archaeologist; Salbahanpur, Kampilanagari, Bahra, the hill of Jud, perhaps Bucephalia,
the seven towns of Uchh, but, above all, the capital of
1190
Taxiles. Let us hope that, in this age of enterprise, these suggestions may be followed up; we can promise the adventurer a very different result from that which tempts the explorer of barbarous Africa, for here he would penetrate into the first haunts of civilization, and might solve one of the great problems which still distract mankind [232].