History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c23.20

v1.c23.20

In Bengal the Aryans went later. Only some Brahmins went of themselves as religious teachers and some were even called by native kings. But into the Mahārāshtra the Indo-Aryans went in larger numbers. For as we have said they were fond of a dry open fertile plain and the plains of Mahārāshtra were just of this kind. There was a forest there no doubt but the country was not very hilly and the Indo-Aryans settled in this land with great enthusiam. These were of course Aryans of the second horde of invaders viz. of the lunar race and with their peculiar tendency they inter-married with the local Dravidian population. That population, was sparse and not thick. Hence the Indo-Aryans though they became mixed to some extent in Mahārāshtra imposed their language and their religion easily upon the people. Hence also it is that Mahārāshtra including Vidarbha or Berars is notably a land of the Indo-Aryans though not par excellence yet to large extent. As remarked above a land can be said to be inhabited by a people when the agriculturists belong to that people. In Mahārāshtra next after the Panjab the cultivators are Aryans or rather mixed Aryans; and hence it is that the yeomanry of Mahārāthtra has signalised itself so often in the history of India as a martial people.