A History of Indian Literature v1.c8.s13.26

v1.c8.s13.26

Inscriptions prove that in the third century B. C. Southern India was conquered by the Aryan Indians and invaded by brahmanical culture. The fact, however, that some Vedic schools, such as those of Baudhāyana and Āpastamba, originated in the south of India, makes it probable that the conquest of the south by the Aryans must have taken place much earlier, perhaps as early as in the 7th or 8th century B. C. For the whole country can hardly have been colonised and brahmanized immediately after the conquest to such an extent that Vedic schools could originate in the distant south. But, as Bühler says,¹ "with the conquest of Southern India about 700 or even about 600 B. C., the assumption that the Indo-Aryans inhabited about 1200 or even about 1500 B. C. the northern corner of India and Eastern Afghanistan becomes absolutely impossible. The idea that the Indo-Aryan nation of the Vedic times, with its many clan-divisions and its perpetual internal feuds, should have conquered the 123,000 square miles, which form the area of India (excluding the Punjab, Assam and Burma) and should have founded States, organised on the same model, all over this vast territory within the space of five, six or even eight hundred years, appears simply ludicrous; especially if it is borne in mind that this territory was inhabited not merely by forest tribes, but in part by peoples possessing a civilisation not much inferior to that of the invaders. More than double of the longest period named was required for such achievements.