The Personality of India: Pre- and Proto-historic Foundation of India and Pakistan c10.10

c10.10

The pioneer of the geographic studies in India was F. J. Richards, who indicated the main trans-continental communication system and the pattern of migration based on it, by a brilliant analysis of Indian history.⁴ Outside the sub-continent the most important region, at the "dawn of civilization", was the Afrasian dry zone, covering the great river valleys of Western Asia and N. Africa. The great cultural developments in that area, and the progressive desiccation, has resulted in radial migrations of people to the east. This position has made India a zone of constant immigration, owing to its location on the margin of the Eurasian Continent. As pointed out by Panikkar, India's position, somewhat away from the Trans-continental communication of Eurasia, has encouraged a comparative stability. Referring to the great nomadic outbursts that revolutionized the history of Asia, Panikkar writes, "those countries which stand directly in the way of these nomads are destroyed and broken up from time to time. Those that are protected by geography received a backwash and after a turmoil settled down again".¹ This in brief may be stated to be the character of most of the invasions and cultural influences that so vitally affected the course of Indian history. Besides, the magnitude of the alluvial plains of the Indus and the Ganges and the relative solidity of the physical barriers have, to a great extent, offset the disadvantage of her location. It is idle to speculate at the present stage of our knowledge of human evolution in general, and that of Early Man in India in particular, about the beginnings of human life in this sub-continent. But in the subsequent periods it is well-known that every new wave of people, who entered the Indo-Gangetic plains as conquerors or fugitives very rapidly lost their individuality in this melting pot of cultures and added their own indistinguishable element to the make up of this culture complex. It is very difficult to isolate these various strands. A few dominant traits have left very deep imprints, but the others represent a sort of backwash and have to remain unidentified and unaccounted. The greatest example of this is the Indus Civilization itself with its obvious affinities, specially at the initial stages, to those of Western Asia, but with the distinct stamp of the great river valley in whose lap it flourished. Yet, it left its deep imprint on the whole development of Indian civilization in the succeeding ages.