The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c8.60

v1.c8.60

Physical evidence of the present day suggests that about the longitude of Sirhind there sets in a distinct change of type in Northern India, and the type to the west of the line has been characterized as Indo-Aryan, that to the east as Aryo-Dravidian, the first including the areas of Kashmir, the Punjab to the longitude of Ambāla, and Rājputāna, the latter the eastern border of the Punjab, the United Provinces, and Bihar. Taken in conjunction with the grouping of modern vernaculars, this distinction has been made the basis of a theory which asserts that the Aryan invasion of India took place in two distinct movements of very different character; the one was carried out by tribes which entered India through the passes of the Hindu Kush, passing through South Afghānistān, and the valleys of the Kābul, Kurram, and Gumal rivers, and settling in the N.W. Frontier Province and the Punjab. These tribes were accompanied by their wives and families, a fact which is held to explain the predominantly Indo-Aryan character of the population west of Sirhind. On the other hand the second invasion was by the difficult way of Gilgit and Chitral, and was carried out by men unaccompanied by women, who, therefore, had to form alliances on a wholesale scale with the Dravidians, whence the changed type. The argument from ethnology is clearly unsatisfactory; in the first place it is impossible to ignore the fact that there is still doubt whether the Indo-Europeans were Nordic blonds¹ or Mediterranean brunettes or Alpine brachycephalics or a mixed race; that the north-west of India has been the scene of prolonged and repeated inroads; and that the present racial types are, therefore, very poor evidence for the racial types of 1200 B.C., not to mention 3000 B.C. Secondly, it is simple to explain the change as due merely to the fact that about the longitude of Sirhind the Dravidians were established in larger numbers and that the progress of the Aryans became seriously hampered; they had to convert rather than conquer, and the racial type is, therefore, naturally a compromise. The evidence from language² is clearly of even less value. The facts of the later dialectic differences can be wholly and satisfactorily explained³ by the inevitable mode of propagation of linguistic influence; from the centre of that influence, the middle country of the Brāhmaṇa period, linguistic influence was exerted in a manner which necessarily became more and more feeble in proportion to the distance of the peoples affected from the centre; hence the phenomena of outer and inner languages are explained without recourse to the speculation which introduces invaders over an almost impossible route, and, what is far worse, demands that we should recognize a sharp break between the civilization of the Rigveda and that of the Brāhmaṇas, assigning the former to the Punjab, and the latter to the middle country. The literature of the Vedic period shows emphatically no break of any kind in culture; it displays instead evidence of the advance of the Vedic civilization from the Punjab to the middle country, in an orderly progress, which conforms precisely to what would *a priori* be expected.