The Personality of India: Pre- and Proto-historic Foundation of India and Pakistan c14.s1.t3.1

c14.s1.t3.1

The lower deltaic portion of the Ganges is, as yet, a *terra incognita* as far as archaeological evidence is concerned. But these enormous deltaic lowlands of Bengal are subjected to constant shifting of river beds to an extent unknown in any other part and, as Raychowdhary put it, "these changes have made and unmade flourishing cities and thriving marts, and sometimes changed the whole outlook of areas." It is not without significance, as we shall see, that the first literary records refer to the development of *Vardhamanabhukti* and *Kankagrama* between the Rajmahal hills and the *Bhagirathi* (Hooghly) and along the northern foot-hills or northern parts of *Pundra* or *Varendra* with the early inscription at Mahasthan on the banks of *Karatoya*.¹ Other evidence also tends to confirm the general belief of a slow spread of Aryan or Gangetic valley influences downstream along the river. There is evidence of a vague and indeterminable character about the possibility of terrestrial influences from S. E. Asia through Assam and maritime influences through the sea. But this probably was Pre-historic, and Pre-Aryan in character. Such evidence mainly consists of the infiltration of the South-east Asian Neolithic cultures.