History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v2.c28.s1.95

v2.c28.s1.95

1. The Rāmāyaṇa too of the first century B. C. speaks of this part as still inhabited by the dread Ābhīras. In the Yuddha Kāṇḍa Sarga 22, Rāma takes out an arrow to throw at the recalcitrant southern ocean who, appearing bodily, asks Rāma to forgive him and requests him to let his arrow fly against a northern part of himself called Drumakulya where many people headed by the Ābhīras who are described as "Dasyus of terrible appearance and deed" drink his water and whose proximity he can no longer bear. The arrow was accordingly sent and the country became devoid of water except in a well which was pierced by the arrow and which became famous as Vraṇa Kūpa*. What Drumakulya country was and where this Vraṇa Kūpa is, cannot be ascertained but certain it is that Indian poets have taken the most natural view of this part of India in its geological aspects viz., that Rajputana was probably once a sea which is now dried up and that there is very little water to be got except in some well-known wells. This part, however, was blessed by Rāma in return for its undeserved punishment and it became very fertile and healthy. Apparently, therefore, about the beginning of the Christian era this part was first entered and settled by Aryans, after subjugating the fierce and uncouth aborigined people. The road became thus clear for settlement and it was found that Maru (desert) was fertile and healthy and capable of maintaining large stocks of cattle and raising different kinds of grain. In short, we may gather that the Aryan settlers first came to Maru, probably by the beginning of the Christian era.