The Personality of India: Pre- and Proto-historic Foundation of India and Pakistan c9.10

c9.10

This difficulty of the historian is gradually confronting the archaeologist. The need to understand the significance of these smaller units is being driven home by the results of Indian archaeology during the last few years. A distinct geographic pattern is emerging in the development and spread of cultures in different parts of the country. It is difficult to draw lines of contemporaneity across the lines of vertical development, since the horizontal expansion of those cultures has been influenced and to some extent retarded by the geographic factors within, and without the sub-continent. This phenomenon can be understood by the analogy of the spread and development of Vedic Hinduism and the Sanskrit language in different parts of the country at different periods, influencing and absorbing the regional and local forms and manifestations. This is accentuated by problems of Indian archaeological chronology, since the bullock-cart and the aeroplane move together in India. The recognition of this basic truth and its application to our problems are an essential condition in future research in India in all fields of history and culture.