History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c25.11

v2.c25.11

The Sanskrit-speaking people, who came into India 2000 or 3000 years B.C., could never have been numerically one-half of the inhabitants of the country, except, perhaps, in some such limited district as that between the Satlaj and the Jamnâ; and since the Christian Era no Âryan race has migrated eastward across the Indus, but wave after wave of peoples of Turanian race, under the names of Yavanas, Sakas, Hûnas, Tûrks, or Mongols, have poured into India. This, combined with the ascendancy of the mixed or aboriginal races during the period when Buddhism was the prevailing religion of the country, has so completely washed out Âryanism from northern India during the building ages, that there is probably no community there which could claim one-tenth of pure Âryan blood in its veins, and with nine-tenths of impurity the term is certainly a misnomer. If it were not, we would certainly find some trace of external Âryan affinities in their style; but in fact, no style is so purely local, and, if the term may be used, so aboriginal, as this. The origin of the Buddhist style is obvious and unmistakable; that of the Dravidian and Chalukyan nearly as certain, though not quite so obvious; but the origin of the northern Hindû style remains a mystery, unless, indeed, the solution suggested above (*ante*, vol. i. p. 325) be considered an explanation. It may be so, to some extent; but I confess it is to my mind neither quite satisfactory nor sufficient.