The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c15.220

v1.c15.220

Man has completed the work which nature had begun; for, as we have seen, climatic changes had for ages past been making access into India more and more difficult. The era of tribal migration had long ago come to an end, and had been succeeded by the era of conquest. All through history down to the period of British rule we see one foreign power after another breaking through the north-western gateway, and the strongest of these winning the suzerainty over India. But the result in all cases was little more than a change of rulers—the deposition of one dominant caste and the substitution of another. The lives of the common people, their social conditions and systems of local government, were barely affected by such conquests. Indian institutions have therefore a long unbroken history which makes their study especially valuable.