History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c23.18

v1.c23.18

When the Indo Aryans came to the Panjab in their migrations to the south in Vedic or Avestic times they found a land just to their hearts' desire, a land plain and fertile devoid of hills and ravines. These Aryans were an agricultural people and coming from the plains of Central Asia they were probably averse to living in a mountainous country. They liked a land which Manu designates Jāngala and which he describes as a fertile plain devoid of forest and with a dry climate like their Central Asian habitat. They found the Panjab just as they had wanted, but as the Avesta says it was extremely hot and full of serpents. The aboriginal Dravidian population here seems to have been sparse and as the Aryans settled and took to cultivation, that population receded southwards. It is hence that the Panjab is populated from the highest to the lowest strata by an Aryan population throughout its different layers. It may be remarked here that a country cannot be said to be inhabited by a people unless the cultivators belong to the same race as the rulers. In the Panjab the cultivators or the Vish are Aryans as has been said over and over again and it is hence that a land of the Indo-Aryans par excellence. The lowest strata or labourers and menials were probably of the Dāsa or Dravidian race but the province down to Alexander's conquest was generally full of the Aryan population which in this fertile land as in America in a short time must have multiplied and filled the whole country.