Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v2.c30.8

v2.c30.8

It would be vain to speculate upon the first colonization of India proper by the Rajkula, or ‘royal tribes.’ It appears to have possessed an indigenous population prior to the races of Surya, or Indu, though the genealogies which give the origin of these degraded races of Kabas,⁴ Bhils, Meras, Gonds, etc., assert that they were all from the same stem, and that their political debasement was the effect of moral causes. But as there is no proof of this, we must attribute the fable to the desire of the Brahman [218] archaeologist to account for the origin of all things. Modern inquiries into these matters have been cramped by an erroneous and contracted view of the power of this ancient people, and the direction of that power. It has been assumed that the prejudices originating in Muslim conquests, which prevented the Hindu chieftain from crossing the forbidden waters of the Attock, and still more from “ going down to the sea in ships,” had always existed. But were it not far more difficult to part with erroneous impressions than to receive new and correct views, it would be apparent that the first of these restrictions is of very recent origin, and on the other hand, that the Hindus of remote ages possessed great naval power, by which communication must have been maintained with the coasts of Africa,¹ Arabia, and Persia, as well as the Australian Archipelago.² It is ridiculous,