Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c11.s5.12

c11.s5.12

The general conclusion drawn by Oldenberg from the geographical data of the literature of the period is that the culture of the Vedas was indigenous to but one portion of the Aryan peoples of Hindusthan and from them reached the other afterwards only at second hand; that the home of Brahmanic civilization has been with the Kuru-Pañchālas and the stocks of the west standing in closer union with them who, as the qualified champions of Aryan culture, are to be distinguished from those who were not regarded as equally accredited partakers in this culture. Though this conclusion seems to be contradicted by the fact that our *Brāhmaṇa* texts like the *Satapatha*, for instance, do not mention the western peoples to the exclusion of the eastern (as have been already shown), we should, however, bear in mind that the cases of their being mentioned, specially of the Kurus and Pañchālas, and, in a second degree, of the Bharatas, surpass at once in frequency the mentioning of the eastern peoples; and that the texts frequently attribute to the western peoples unmistakably the weight of an older and higher sacral authority than to the eastern groups, which latter are plainly named in a hostile or contemptuous tone, or at least appear as peoples who have received from the west instruction in the spiritual knowledge which has its home there.