The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c7.28

c7.28

The ancient kingdoms of the far south, although rich and populous, inhabited by Dravidian nations not inferior in culture to their Aryan rivals in the north, were ordinarily so secluded from the rest of the civilized world, including Northern India, that their affairs remained hidden from the eyes of other nations; and, native annalists being lacking, their history, previous to the year 800 of the Christian era, has almost wholly perished. Except on the rare occasions when an unusually enterprising sovereign of the north either penetrated or turned the forest barrier, and for a moment lifted the veil of secrecy in which the southern potentates lived enwrapped, very little is known concerning political events in the far south during the long period extending from 600 B. C. to A. D. 800. To use the words of Elphinstone, no 'connected relation of the national transactions' of Southern India in remote times can be written; and an early history of India must, perforce, be concerned mainly with the north.