The Personality of India: Pre- and Proto-historic Foundation of India and Pakistan c9.23

c9.23

As already indicated, India is cut off from the rest of Eurasia by a vast chain of high mountain ranges which have helped in the desiccation of the regions to the north. Even the transcontinental communication system of Asia and Europe, connecting China with Europe, leaves India alone. The main route passed across to Hindu-kush and Pamirs through the Valleys of Syr-Darya and Amu-Darya and then from the shores of the Caspian and Azerbaijan to Western Asia. There was a sort of a feeder route (along the Kabul Valley) connecting India, and all these routes met in Bactria and further west. Hence we have to some extent escaped the main impacts, and due to the inaccessibility and the difficulty of communications, the links were broken too often, to keep up a continuous movement of goods and ideas. And these lost their identity in the main corpus of Indian culture.