Prehistory and Protohistory in India and Pakistan c4.8

c4.8

India is, however, approachable by the sea from the west and from the south and south-east as well by the difficult, hilly and thickly forested country on the north-east. The west has been the major gateway during the historical times, but evidence is now accumulating to suggest that this was so during the prehistoric as well as proto-historic times. And hence scholars like HOLDICH said³ long before the new discoveries were made that "India had been from time immemorial peopled by immigrants." Likewise, while India undoubtedly influenced the countries of South-East Asia, during historical times, she has also received influences from the same quarters during the Late Stone Age period and after called here 'Neolithic'. All these cultural influences from the west and north-west, east, south-east and north-east did not *at once* nor uniformly spread all over India, but spread gradually, depending upon several factors, among which geographical were the most important.