The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c31.s9.10

c31.s9.10

The earliest foreign immigration within the limits of the historical period which can be verified is that of the Sakas in the second century B. C. (*ante*, pp. 240, 265); and the next is that of the Yüe-chi or Kushāns in the first century after Christ (*ante*, p. 267). Probably none of the existing Rājpūt clans can carry back their genuine pedigrees nearly so far. I have no doubt that the ruling families of both the Sakas and the Kushāns when they became Hinduized were admitted to rank as Kshatriyas in the Hindu caste system, but the fact can be inferred only from the analogy of what is ascertained to have happened in later ages—it cannot be proved.