Prehistory and Protohistory in India and Pakistan c4.5

c4.5

India forms a kind of rhomboidal peninsula¹ in the continent of Asia. The north-west-south-east lying Himalayan ranges have given her a certain seclusion from outside influences—both political and cultural as well as climatic, still these ranges have always been penetrated at several times in India's past history. Particularly this has been so in the north-west where the two famous routes—the Khyber and the Bolan Passes to and from Afghanistan and Baluchistan respectively²—have let in invaders and refugees, traders and travellers, from Central and Western Asia. Thus the Indian seclusion has been violated. And once the foreigners came in they have spread into the Indo-Gangetic plains and beyond by the most suitable lines of communication.