The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c15.191

v1.c15.191

Both of the facts above mentioned—the abrupt transition from the Indo-Āryan to the Āryo-Dravidian type, and the extension of Āryan influence from Brahmāvarta to Brahmarshideça—are best understood if we remember the natural feature which connects the plain of the Indus with the plain of the Ganges. This is the strait of habitable land which lies between the desert and the mountains. Its historical significance has already been noticed². It is in this strait that the decisive battles, on which the fate of India has depended, have been fought; and here too we may suppose that the progress of racial migrations from the north-west in prehistoric times must have been checked. Both politically and ethnographically it forms a natural boundary. In the age of the Rigveda the Āryans had not yet broken through the barrier, though the Jumna is mentioned in a hymn (VII, 18, 19) in such a way as to indicate that a battle had been won on its banks. It was only at some later date that the country between the Upper Jumna and Ganges and the district of Delhi were occupied. A record of this occupation has been preserved in some ancient verses quoted in the Çatapatha Brāhmaṇa (XIII, 5, 4, 11–14) which refer to the triumphs celebrated by Bharata Dauḥshanti after his victories on the Jumna and the Ganges, and to the extent of his conquests. In their new home the Bharatas, who were settled in the country of the Sarasvatī in the times of the Rigveda (see III, 23, 4), were merged in the Kurus; and their whole territory, the new together with the old, became famous in history under the name Kurukshetra—‘the Field of the Kurus.’ This was the scene of the great war of the descendants of Bharata Dauḥshanti, and the centre from which Indo-Āryan culture spread, first throughout Hindustān, and eventually throughout the whole sub-continent. The epoch of Indo-Āryan tribal migration was definitely closed. It was succeeded by the epoch of Indo-Āryan colonisation.