Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c46.2.3

c46.2.3

In the Upper, or Continental, portion of India that purity is probably found in the upper classes of the Panjāb and Rājputāna. It exists, too, at the opposite end of the social ladder, amongst the Hill tribes of the Belt dividing the above portion of India from the Peninsula. South of that barrier, again, the population, except along parts of the West Coast, is comparatively homogeneous, and the main variations noticeable in it are not more marked than those which may reasonably be attributed to secular differences in habits and pursuits. The principal physical features of the country have to be taken into account in connection with its ethnography, as they have played a highly important part in determining the racial distribution of the population. To put it briefly, India can only be entered from the north by any considerable body of men by passes through the outlying ranges running southwards from the Himalaya in the western extension of that great system. In early times, no doubt, access was comparatively easy by routes debouching on the middle and lower Indus, over country which is now sandy desert, but which was once the abode of a considerable population. Similarly, on the eastern flank of the Himalaya, the trend of the lower ranges renders it possible for those accustomed to forest and mountain life to enter, though not in large bodies, the valley of the Brahmaputra or the eastern Gangetic Delta.