The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c8.s3.45

c8.s3.45

But farther south and on the eastern coast, though they penetrated there and communicated their own civilization to the aboriginal races inhabiting those parts, they were not able to incorporate them thoroughly into their own society and to root out their languages and their peculiar civilization. On the contrary, the Âryas had to learn the languages of those races and to adopt a portion at least of their civilization. Thus the Kanarese, the Telugu, the Tamil, and the other languages now spoken in Southern India are not derived from the Sanskrit but belong altogether to a different stock, and hence it is also that southern art is so different from the northern. The reason why the result of the Âryan irruption was so different in Southern India from what it was in the north appears to be that when the Âryas penetrated to the south there existed already well-organized communities and kingdoms. In the passage in the Râmâyaṇa, referred to above, the monkey-soldiers are directed to go to the countries of the Andhras (Telugu people), the Pâṇḍyas, the Cholas, and the Keralas, in the south; and are told that they will there see the gate of the city of the Pâṇḍyas adorned with gold and jewels. And these races, their country, and their kings are alluded to in other Sanskrit works, as will be noticed hereafter. In the north, however, at the time of the Âryan invasion, the condition of the country must have been similar to that of Daṇḍakâraṇya, which is represented in the Râmâyaṇa as a forest infested by Râkshasas or wild tribes who disturbed the religious rites of the Brâhman sages. And throughout the older portion of Sanskrit literature, which is to be referred to the times when the Âryas were gradually progressing from the Panjâb, the wild tribes they met with are spoken of under the name of Dasyus, Râkshasas, and others.