Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c46.5

c46.5

§ 4. From these sources it appears that a number of cognate tribes of northern race and pastoral habits advanced across and along the Indus into the Panjāb, where they settled after dispossessing the dark tribes in occupation, relegating them to the position of helots in the service of the new communities. The Vedic Āryas seem to have lost touch in time with their original country across the snows, and to have developed their civilisation on lines peculiarly their own. Their progress eastwards from the Indus was that of expansion rather than of conquest, as the Kōl tribes seem after a time to have offered no serious resistance. The comparatively easy conditions of life in sub-tropical circumstances, and the immunity from attack in force from the west, which was secured by their mountain rampart, combined to soften the northern fibre of the race, and, in course of time, the supreme influence over the community was transferred from the chieftain to the priests, under whose auspices society was organised in a way that secured the absolute supremacy of their own order. The