DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9541#0035
INTRODUCTION.
13
are with the trans-Himalayan population, and it either is that they
entered India through the passes of that great mountain range, or it
might lie more correct to say that the Thibetans are a fragment of a
great population that occupied both the northern and southern slope of
that great chain of hills at some very remote pre-historic time.
\\ hoever they were, they were the jieople who, in remote times,
were apparently the worshippers of Trees and Serpents; but what
interests us more in them, and makes the inquiry into their history
more desirable, is that they were the people who first adopted
Buddhism in India, and they, or their congeners, are the only people
who, in historic times, as now, adhered, or still adhere to, that form of
faith. No purely Aryan ]>eople ever were, or ever could be, Buddhist,
nor, so far as I know, were any Dravidiun community ever converted
to that faith. But in Bengal, in Ceylon, in Thibet, Bunnah, Siam,
and China, wherever a Thibetan people exists, or a people allied to
them, there Buddhism flourished and now prevails. But in India the
Dravidians resisted it in the south, and a revival of Aryanism abolished
it in the north.
Architecturally, there is no difficulty in defining the limits of the
Dasyu province: wherever a square tower-like temple exists with a
perpendicular base, but a curvilinear outline above, such as that shown
in the woodcut on the following page, there we may feel certain of the
existence, past or present, of a people of Dasyu extraction, retaining
their purity very nearly in the direct ratio to the number of these temples
found in the district. Were it not consequently for the difficulty
of introducing new names and obtaining acceptance to what is
unfamiliar, the proper names for the style prevailing in northern
India would be Dasyu style, instead of Indo-Aryan or Dasyu-Aryan
which I have felt constrained to adopt. No one can accuse the pure
Aryans of introducing this form in India, or of building temples at
all, or of worshipping images of Siva or Vishnu, with which these
temples are filled, and they consequently have little title to confer
their name on the style. The Aryans had, however, become so impure
in blood before these temples were erected, and were so mixed up
with the Dasyus, and had so influenced their religion and the arts,
that it may be better to retain a name which sounds familiar, and does
not too sharply prejudge the question. Be this as it may, one thing
seems tolerably clear, that the regions occupied by the Aryans in
India were conterminous with those of the Dasyus, or, in other words,
invaluable as a guide, is nearly useless as Highlauders of Scotland to ubandon their
a test of atlinity. The Romans imposed | tongue for ours, and tlie process is rapidly
™* la"guage on all the diverse nation- ; going on elsewhere. The mamma and
alities of Italy, France, and SiKiin. We ! customs of the (Jonds are all similar to
have imposed ours on the Cornish, and \ those of the Coles or Khonds, though, it
■W fast teaching the Irish, Welsh, and I is true, they speak a Dravidian tongue.
13
are with the trans-Himalayan population, and it either is that they
entered India through the passes of that great mountain range, or it
might lie more correct to say that the Thibetans are a fragment of a
great population that occupied both the northern and southern slope of
that great chain of hills at some very remote pre-historic time.
\\ hoever they were, they were the jieople who, in remote times,
were apparently the worshippers of Trees and Serpents; but what
interests us more in them, and makes the inquiry into their history
more desirable, is that they were the people who first adopted
Buddhism in India, and they, or their congeners, are the only people
who, in historic times, as now, adhered, or still adhere to, that form of
faith. No purely Aryan ]>eople ever were, or ever could be, Buddhist,
nor, so far as I know, were any Dravidiun community ever converted
to that faith. But in Bengal, in Ceylon, in Thibet, Bunnah, Siam,
and China, wherever a Thibetan people exists, or a people allied to
them, there Buddhism flourished and now prevails. But in India the
Dravidians resisted it in the south, and a revival of Aryanism abolished
it in the north.
Architecturally, there is no difficulty in defining the limits of the
Dasyu province: wherever a square tower-like temple exists with a
perpendicular base, but a curvilinear outline above, such as that shown
in the woodcut on the following page, there we may feel certain of the
existence, past or present, of a people of Dasyu extraction, retaining
their purity very nearly in the direct ratio to the number of these temples
found in the district. Were it not consequently for the difficulty
of introducing new names and obtaining acceptance to what is
unfamiliar, the proper names for the style prevailing in northern
India would be Dasyu style, instead of Indo-Aryan or Dasyu-Aryan
which I have felt constrained to adopt. No one can accuse the pure
Aryans of introducing this form in India, or of building temples at
all, or of worshipping images of Siva or Vishnu, with which these
temples are filled, and they consequently have little title to confer
their name on the style. The Aryans had, however, become so impure
in blood before these temples were erected, and were so mixed up
with the Dasyus, and had so influenced their religion and the arts,
that it may be better to retain a name which sounds familiar, and does
not too sharply prejudge the question. Be this as it may, one thing
seems tolerably clear, that the regions occupied by the Aryans in
India were conterminous with those of the Dasyus, or, in other words,
invaluable as a guide, is nearly useless as Highlauders of Scotland to ubandon their
a test of atlinity. The Romans imposed | tongue for ours, and tlie process is rapidly
™* la"guage on all the diverse nation- ; going on elsewhere. The mamma and
alities of Italy, France, and SiKiin. We ! customs of the (Jonds are all similar to
have imposed ours on the Cornish, and \ those of the Coles or Khonds, though, it
■W fast teaching the Irish, Welsh, and I is true, they speak a Dravidian tongue.