History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c14.27

v1.c14.27

It is apparent from this description that a highly civilised race colonised different parts of widely different groups of Oceania at some remote period. The present population is not a degenerate descendant of that civilised and virile race but some other people who have swamped out their real descendants but have failed even to profit by their example and decadent knowledge. Such an example is always to be met with in Indonesia proper which was also colonised by Dravidians but which continued to be within the zone of Indo-Dravidian influence long after the Aryanisation of the Dravidians of India. Perry is of opinion that signs of the beginnings of civilisations in Indonesia are far more difficult to interpret than those of Oceania because Indonesia has been overrun by many strange races. In the first place, the Brahmanic influence in Indonesia is not very old and does not go back beyond the 1st or the 2nd centuries of the Christian era. The evidence of the Indian script in Burma, Siam, Java, Bali and Bugi points to a still later date, but there is a class of evidence totally neglected by Indologists, which Perry has recorded. In India and Europe the majority of scholars are still obsessed with the idea that the Dravidians were the aborigines of India and were savages or primitive people when they came to this country. They, therefore, look upon Indonesia as being colonised by Aryans either two centuries before or after the birth of Christ. The mass of evidence recorded by Perry points to a certain connection between the pre-Aryan civilisation of a part at least of Indonesia and that of Mohen-jo-daro. This evidence falls like that of the Chalcolithic culture of Mohen-jo-daro into four different classes :—