Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c30.38

c30.38

By far the greater part of ancient historical tradition deals with the doings of the Aila stock, its growth and expansion. Quite different were the fortunes of the Mānva stock. It occupied the greatest part of India originally, but steadily lost ground before the Ailas. At two epochs it is said to have risen in the Ayodhyā realm to paramount dominion, first, in Māndhātṛ’s conquests, and again when Sagara overthrew the Haihayas and foreign tribes, but the supremacy was short-lived, and the Ailas renewed their progress. After Sagara’s time the three Mānva kingdoms of Ayodhyā, Videha and Vaiśālī played almost entirely a conservative part, influencing little the political development of India, which thenceforward was worked out by the two Aila branches, the Pauravas and Yādavas. The expansion of these two and the other branches has been explained in the last chapter. We may now take stock of the racial and political changes that had taken place, down to the time of the Bhārata battle.