History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c23.25

v1.c23.25

Now consider what will happen supposing their rule is overthrown. The superimposed layer of the ruling people, separate as it is, will disappear without impressing the people in the least. The English, for example, will completely disappear if they lose their rule in India; for they not only do not increase but do not even make India their home. The Marathas of Baroda or the Moguls of Hyderabad will mostly retire to their respective home lands and those that have made the new country their home will remain if they do remain as a distinct people. Their number may even dwindle away under the adverse circumstances of their condition. The hypothetical case which we have here described was what must have actually happened in the Panjab during the successive waves of conquest over it. The Greek Bactrian rule was overthrown by the Sakas and left no remnant of its population. So was the succeeding Saka rule overthrown by Vikramāditya of 57 B.C. and left no trace in northern India and the Panjab. Even the Kushans who enjoyed a long extensive rule in the Panjab and adjoining lands from 150 A.D. to later than 300 A.D. left no remnant. The Kushans even if numerous were overlords spread in cities and towns and could not have increased in population and when overthrown must have left the land or dwindled away. The Huns came in about 400 A.D. were supreme for about a hundred years and were overthrown about 500 A.D. Their Gāndhāra kingdom went to the Kshatriya kings of Kabul as we find from Hiuen Tsang and their second kingdom in the Panjab about Sākala was changed into the Tekka kingdom. A Huna kingdom appears to have been left in India somewhere, for a Huna Kshatriya family is mentioned later on. But they did not impress the rural population which remained uncontaminated. And even if some remained the facility afforded by the Indian social tendency towards the formation of subcastes bound by interdiction of marriage must have prevented all intermixture of races. If we therefore consider carefully how foreign conquests in historical times affect populations fully established, we can see that the later conquering peoples, the Greeks, the Sakas, the Kushans and the Huns have disappeared rather than that the original settling Indo-Aryan population fully settled in the Panjab could have disappeared leaving the later Scythic peoples in the country as many Indian antiquarians seem to believe. This is the true explanation of the undoubted ethnic fact that the population of the Panjab is still almost pure Indo-Aryan though successive waves of conquest from the Greek down to the Mogul have from time to time passed over it.