History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c14.7

v1.c14.7

We have to distinguish between two different stages in the colonisation of Indonesia and the Pacific islands, the first of which belongs to the period prior to the Aryanization of the great Dravidian nations of Southern India, *e. g.*, Kalingas, Cholas, Pandyas and Keralas. The second stage belongs to the historical period when the Dravidian had accepted the faith of the Aryan invaders with certain modifications. Scholars have recognised Hindu or Brahmanical remains in Java, Sumatra, Borneo and some of the neighbouring islands, such as Bali and Timor; but over the greater part of Indonesia the pre-historic remains include distinct traces of a pre-historic civilisation, no connection or contact with which can be established even now. The subject has been dealt with very summarily by W. J. Perry. The subject has been divided into two chapters entitled "Culture-sequence in Oceania and Indonesia." In Oceania two distinct people are recognised :—The dark skinned negroid people of the Solomon island, New Hebrides and Fiji and the light skinned people of Polynesia or the rest of the Pacific Islands with the exception of Micronesia. These two areas divide the culture of Oceania. Throughout Polynesia one finds stone monuments and stone statues or images which are not used, in the majority of cases, by the present inhabitants of these islands. In the case of the Easter Islands such monuments are quite beyond the constructive power of the present inhabitants or their implements.