The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c15.99

v1.c15.99

From Rājputāna we come to Delhi, which may truly be called the historical focus of all India; for, as we have seen, it commands the gateway which leads from the Punjab plain to Hindustān, the plain of the Jumna and the Ganges. Here the fate of invasions from India from the north-west has been decided. Some have either never reached this gateway or have failed to force their way through it. The conquests of Darius in the latter part of the sixth century b.c., and of Alexander the Great in the years 327–5 b.c., were not carried beyond the Punjab plain. Such direct influence as they exercised in modifying the character of Indian civilisation must therefore have been confined to this region. On the other hand, the invasions which have succeeded in passing the gateway and in effecting a permanent settlement in Hindustān have determined the history of the whole sub-continent. These belong to two groups, the Āryan and the Musalmān, distinguished by religion, language, and type of civilisation, and separated from each other by an interval of probably some two thousand years.