ANCIENT
INDIA:ELEMENTS OF THE
POPULATION OF INDIA
India is a land of endless diversity.It is apparent and has been a subject of many trite remarks.From the physical point of view we find every extreme of
altitude, temperature,rainfall,and all the elements of climate.From the human point of view,India has been often described as ''ETHNOLOGICAL MUSEUM'',in which numberless
races of mankind may be studied.Hindus,Muslims,Christians, Buddhists,Jews and many other religions and sectsform the great Indian population.India offers unity in diversity inthe face of such bewildering diversity.
The peninsular India ,built up of the most ancient rockshas been permanent land for uncounted millions of years.The peninsula was isolated by the reason of its position amd ordinarily could not either new inhabitants or novel institutions except by the sea.Number of queer
tribes with extraordinary customs,hidden away in different parts of peninsular area,look like the descendants of true ''aborgines''or earliest people.
The plains of the northern india ,on the contrary, were formed by the gradual filling up of the sea with material brought down from the high lands of Asia.These regions now forming the basins of Indus and Ganges must have taken thousnads of years to become fit for human habitation.The aravallis and the salt range,are composed of primaevel rocks like peninsula,and undoubtedly were dry land in ver yearly stage of earth''s history.In those parts certain tribes now in being may be the descendents of ''aborgines''.
The unceasing immigration of stranger sby land into northern India ,which has made the population there the mixture which it is did not affect the south,which was shut off by the wide and almost impenetrable barrier of hill and forest,represented by the narmada,the vindhya,and the satpura ranges.
The earliest invaders or settlers about anything at all definite is known were the people of rigveda hymns,who called themselves
Aryans, and are conveniently designated as Indo-Aryans in order t o distinguish them from their brethern whoremained at the other side of the passes.They separated sharply from the non-Aryan dark skinned early inhabitants and were no doubt tall and fair.They were akin to the Iranians or the Persian aryans.They slowly worked their across the punjab and down the courses of Indus and Ganges.Probably they advanced as far as the Allahabad at a tolerably early date,but Bihar and Bengal long continued to be reckoned as non-aryan countries.The people there went on their own way and developed adistinct dravidian form of civilization.
Many centuries after the close of Indo-aryan movement,except the comparitively small settlements of Greek origin in the Punjab and thenorth-western frontier consequent on Alexander''s invasion in 326 B.C. and the existence of Bactrian kingdom and its offshoots between 246B.C.and A.D.50. The next extensive immigration of which any definite knowledge is survived is that of the Sakas,which began in the second
century B.C.All foreigners from the other side of the passes without clear distinctions of race or tribe included both narrow eyed mongols,and handsome races like turks who resemble the Aryans in physique.The sakas formed kingdoms in the Punjab,at Mathura and in the Kathiawar paninsula.
In the first century after christ another nomad tribe from central Asia called the Yueh-Chi descended upon the plains of northern India.Their leading clan ,the kushans founded the great empire which extended southwards as far as the Narmada.The kushans appear to have been big fair complexioned men,probably of the Turki race and akin to the Iranians or Persian aryans.
During the fifth and the sixth canturies great multitudes of fierc efolk from central asian steppes swooped, down on both Persia and India.These invaders are called Hunas,a term used in a general sense to cover a mass of various tribes.Many of the Rajput castes or cthe jats,gujjars and certain other communities are descended either from the hunas or from allied hordes which arrived about the same time.
The last movement which introduced alarge new class of recruit to the Indian population was that of the Muhammadans,beggining with the inroads of the Arabs at the commencement of the eighth century and ending with the establishment of the Mogul dynasty in the sixteenth century.The muslim invaders and the settlers other than the Arab conquerors of the Sindh,belonged to the various Asiatic races,including a number of narrow eyed ,yellow tinted beardless mongols.But the majority were collected from the nation or tribes of better appearance,and were tall and good looking,fair complexioned.They comprised Iranian Persians
akin to the Indo-
Aryan ,Turks ,afghans and the sundry people of mixed descent.The admixture of the mongol blood having been overborne by the other element has left little trace in the features of modern Indian muslims.
Many historians found that it is absolutely impossible to decide who were the earliest inhabitants of India.The modern population of India almost everywhere is far too mixed to admit of the disentangling of distinct races each of a well marked physical type.The inferences drawn by the anthropologists in India often have been quite absurd.The mixture of races on the Indian soil was going on for countless of ages before any history was recorded,and it is hopeless now to unravel different lines of descent. The population of India,comprises extremely various elements,descended from all sorts of people who formerly spoke all sorts of languages.The descendants of those speaking hindi and other languages closely related to sanskrit.Languages become extinct and are replaced by others spoken by races whose position gives them an advantage.Hence,language is no proof of race in India.
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