History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c8.s1.7

v1.c8.s1.7

Historial considerations, we will now go on to show, support the conclusions thus far set forth on anthropometrical grounds, especially with regard to the doubtful case of the Marathas. The materials for constructing the ancient history of the Marathas are ample and trustworthy. They have already been put together by noted scholars like Sir R. G. Bhandarkar and others. The foremost observation to make is the fact that the Aryans did enter into and settle in the Deccan long before the beginning of the Christain era, is universally accepted by all scholars. On the other hand, history tells us that the Śakas or Scythians invaded the Deccan in the first century A. D. and that their stay in the Deccan was limited to about 25 years only, being finally driven away by Sātavāhana Gautamī-putra of Paithana. If this is so how can the people of the Deccan be Scytho-Dravidian? How is it that the Aryans who settled in the province long before the Scythians came have left no trace of their blood in the population? That they settled here is a fact which can not be gainsaid. The history of this settlement of the Deccan by the Aryans is given by Sir R. Bhandarkar as follows: "The first and the oldest Aryan province in the southern country was Vidarbha or Berar. The Rāmāyaṇa and the Mahābhārata show that Vidarbha was inhabited when Daṇḍakāraṇya or Mahārāṣṭra proper was a forest". (Bhandarkar's History of the Deccan page 314.) It may be added that the people who settled in Vidarbha were called Bhoja, that Damayantī was the daughter of a Bhoja king and that Nala when showing, in the Mahābhārata, to Damayantī the way to her father's country, distinctly points to Berars.