DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9541#0051
INTRODUCTION.
29
the frontier to admit of its being done, and after that age they—and
they only—conducted the various invasions which completely changed
the face and character of northern India. For seven centuries they
were continued, witli only occasional interruptions, and at last re-
sulted in placing the Mahomedan power supreme, practically, over
the whole of India, but only to fall to pieces like a house of cards,
before the touch of Western civilisation. All this, however, is written,
and written so distinctly, in so many books, that it need not be
re-capitulated here.
Southern India.
If the records of the ancient history of northern India are un-
satisfactory and untrustworthy, those of the southern part of the
peninsula are at least ten times more so. The Dravidians have no
ancient literature like that of the Vedas. They have no traditions
which point to any seat of their race out of India, or of their having
migrated from any country with whose inhabitants they call claim
any kindred. So far as they know, they are indigenous and abori-
ginal. The utmost extent to which even their traditions extend is to
claim for their leading race of kings—the Pandyas—a descent from
Arjuna, one of the heroes of the 'Mahabharata.' He, it is said, when
on his travels, married a princess of the land, and she gave birth to
the eponymous hero of their race, and hence their name. It is true,
indeed, that they produce long lists of kings, which they pretend
stretch back till the times of the Pandus. These were examined by
the late Professor Wilson in 1836, and he conjectured that they might
extend back to the 5th or (5th century before our era.1 But all that
has since come to light has tended to show that even this may be an
over-estimate of their antiquity. If, however, as Dr. Kern believes,
the Choda, Pada, and Keralaputra of the second edict of Asoka do
really represent the Cholas, Pandyas, Cheras, of modern times, this
triarchy existed in the 3rd century B.C. ; but there are difficulties in
the way of this identification which have not yet been removed. In
fact, all we really do know is that, in classical times, there was a
Hegio Pandionis in the country afterwards known as the I'andyan
kingdom of Madura, and it has been conjec tured that the king who
sent an embassy to Augustus in ■>! n.c- was not a Poms, which
would indicate a northern race, but this very king of the south. Be
1 'Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,'
vol. iii. p. 202.
2 For an exhaustive description of this
subject see Priaulx, ' India and Rome,'
London, 1873. My own impressions are,
I confess, entirely in favour of the
northern origin of the embassy. We are
now in a position to prove an intimate
connection between the north of India
and Rome at that time. With the south
it seems to have been only trade, but of
this hereafter.
29
the frontier to admit of its being done, and after that age they—and
they only—conducted the various invasions which completely changed
the face and character of northern India. For seven centuries they
were continued, witli only occasional interruptions, and at last re-
sulted in placing the Mahomedan power supreme, practically, over
the whole of India, but only to fall to pieces like a house of cards,
before the touch of Western civilisation. All this, however, is written,
and written so distinctly, in so many books, that it need not be
re-capitulated here.
Southern India.
If the records of the ancient history of northern India are un-
satisfactory and untrustworthy, those of the southern part of the
peninsula are at least ten times more so. The Dravidians have no
ancient literature like that of the Vedas. They have no traditions
which point to any seat of their race out of India, or of their having
migrated from any country with whose inhabitants they call claim
any kindred. So far as they know, they are indigenous and abori-
ginal. The utmost extent to which even their traditions extend is to
claim for their leading race of kings—the Pandyas—a descent from
Arjuna, one of the heroes of the 'Mahabharata.' He, it is said, when
on his travels, married a princess of the land, and she gave birth to
the eponymous hero of their race, and hence their name. It is true,
indeed, that they produce long lists of kings, which they pretend
stretch back till the times of the Pandus. These were examined by
the late Professor Wilson in 1836, and he conjectured that they might
extend back to the 5th or (5th century before our era.1 But all that
has since come to light has tended to show that even this may be an
over-estimate of their antiquity. If, however, as Dr. Kern believes,
the Choda, Pada, and Keralaputra of the second edict of Asoka do
really represent the Cholas, Pandyas, Cheras, of modern times, this
triarchy existed in the 3rd century B.C. ; but there are difficulties in
the way of this identification which have not yet been removed. In
fact, all we really do know is that, in classical times, there was a
Hegio Pandionis in the country afterwards known as the I'andyan
kingdom of Madura, and it has been conjec tured that the king who
sent an embassy to Augustus in ■>! n.c- was not a Poms, which
would indicate a northern race, but this very king of the south. Be
1 'Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,'
vol. iii. p. 202.
2 For an exhaustive description of this
subject see Priaulx, ' India and Rome,'
London, 1873. My own impressions are,
I confess, entirely in favour of the
northern origin of the embassy. We are
now in a position to prove an intimate
connection between the north of India
and Rome at that time. With the south
it seems to have been only trade, but of
this hereafter.