The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c7.19

c7.19

This superiority of the Brâhmaṇa caste, however, extended in no way over the whole province of ancient India conquered by Aryan culture. The proper centres of Brahmanism, the provinces which in Manu were styled the land of Brahmarshi, comprise the countries of the Kurus, Matsyas, Pañcâlas and Śûrasenas. The land bordering this, the portion of Northern India which was called Madhyadeśa or middle land, forms, starting eastward, a region indicated by a line drawn from the Himâlaya through Prayâga, called Allahabad to-day, towards the high land of Amarakantaka¹. The provinces to the east of this line, the countries known to-day as Oudh and Behar, where in Buddha’s time we find the people of Kâśi, Kośala, Videha and Magadha, are excluded from Brahmarshideśa. According to the evidence of the Brâhmaṇa texts and the lawbooks, there can be no doubt that these people, especially, those of Magadha and Videha came late in contact with Vedic culture and were never influenced so much by it as the western people. We should not forget that the Aryan immigration in India took place by stages and was not uniform throughout; the Aryan races, who proceeding farthest east, subjugated first the Gangetic people, may have separated themselves from the great body of the Aryans for a time, when there was still no culture which we are accustomed to designate by the term "Vedic." Also it is doubtful whether these advanced guards of Aryan civilization ever succeeded in fully absorbing the aboriginal races who, however inferior they might have been to the Aryans in point of culture, were numerically much stronger than their invaders. So also the circumstance that in Manu the names of some of these eastern races, namely, those of Magadha and Videha, are applied to the mixed castes not belonging to the Aryan family, points to the conclusion that they were not regarded as of the same rank by people who considered themselves true representatives of Aryan culture¹. The possibility, therefore, is in no way excluded that we have to see in the individual races of princes repeatedly mentioned in the Pali texts, such as, the Licchavis of Vesâlî and the Mallas, the lords of Kusinârâ and Pâvâ, who were both looked upon by Manu as the descendants of a *Vrâtya* of the Kshatriya caste, the non-Aryan aboriginal rulers.