[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [General history and culture](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general) › [The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924) › c30.34 # The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c30.34 The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c30.34 - **Language:** English ### [c30.34](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c30.34) ² 'The five Gaudas or "five Indies", viz. Svārasvata (the Panjāb), Kānyakuvja (Kānoja), Gauda (Bengal), Mithilā (Darbhāngā), and Utkala (Orissa) were formerly more allied to one another than they are now. We find the Bengalis to have been in close touch with the people of other parts of Āryāvarta. 'The old Bengali poems were known by the common name of Panchāli. This word shows that we owe at least some forms of the old Bengali metres to Panchāla or Kānoja. 'Svārasvata or the Panjāb gave us its Caka era, which was adopted by the Bengalis as it was by the people of other parts of India. 'The civilization of Bengal—the new learning, especially that of logic, which made the \*tols\* of Nadia famous throughout India, came from Mithilā, when Magadha, its glorious days over, had ceased to give light to Eastern India. 'With Kalinga or Orissa, Bengal in the past was inseparably associated. Our prophet Chaitanya Deva counts more votaries among the Uriyā people than in Bengal itself. So we find that the five Gaudas, as the five influential provinces of Āryāvarta were called, had in the past ages a greater touch with one another, and exchanged their thoughts and ideals more freely than now' (Dinesh Chandra Sen, \*History of Bengali Language and Literature\*, Calcutta Univ., 1911). - [Previous: c30.33](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c30.33) - [Next: c30.35](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c30.35) - [Up: c30](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c30) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c30.34](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c30.34) · Pramāṇa