DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27191#0063
INTRODUCTION.
31
eastvvard, joined the crovvd, and sought settlements in the more
fertile countries within the Indus.
The Nakas were well known to classical authors as the
Sacae, or Skythians. They were pressed on at first by the
Y ue-chi, and became apparently most formidable during the
earlier centuries of the Christian Era.
Another important horde were the Ephthalites or White
Huns, who came into India apparently in the 5th century, and
one of whose kings, nameci Gollas, if we may trust Cosmas
Indicopleustes, was the head of a powerful state in northern
India, about the year 530.1 They, too, seem to have been
conquered about the same time by the Hindus, and, as the
Sakas, if not the Hunas,2 were Buddhists, it may have been
their destruction that first weakened the cause of that religion,
and which led to its ultimate defeat a little more than a century
afterwards.
During the dark age, 750 to 950, we do not know of any
horde passing the Indus. The Muhammadans were probably
too strong on 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, with only
occasional interruptions, and at last resulted in placing the
Muhammadan 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
recapitulated here.
SOUTHERN INDIA.
If the records of the ancient history of northern India are
unsatisfactory and untrustworthy, those of the southern part
of the peninsula are much 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 can claim any kindred. So far as they know, they are
indigenous and aboriginal. 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
1 ‘ Christian Topography of Cosmas,’
translated by Dr. J. W. M‘Crindle
(Hakluyt Soc.), pp. 370-371. This
Gollas seems probably the same as
Mihirakula or Mihiragula.
2 We can hardly hope to discriminate
arnong these foreign invaders between
Hunas, Turushkas, Nakas, Shahis,
Daivaputras, etc., and may regard them
together as Indo-Skythians.
31
eastvvard, joined the crovvd, and sought settlements in the more
fertile countries within the Indus.
The Nakas were well known to classical authors as the
Sacae, or Skythians. They were pressed on at first by the
Y ue-chi, and became apparently most formidable during the
earlier centuries of the Christian Era.
Another important horde were the Ephthalites or White
Huns, who came into India apparently in the 5th century, and
one of whose kings, nameci Gollas, if we may trust Cosmas
Indicopleustes, was the head of a powerful state in northern
India, about the year 530.1 They, too, seem to have been
conquered about the same time by the Hindus, and, as the
Sakas, if not the Hunas,2 were Buddhists, it may have been
their destruction that first weakened the cause of that religion,
and which led to its ultimate defeat a little more than a century
afterwards.
During the dark age, 750 to 950, we do not know of any
horde passing the Indus. The Muhammadans were probably
too strong on 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, with only
occasional interruptions, and at last resulted in placing the
Muhammadan 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
recapitulated here.
SOUTHERN INDIA.
If the records of the ancient history of northern India are
unsatisfactory and untrustworthy, those of the southern part
of the peninsula are much 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 can claim any kindred. So far as they know, they are
indigenous and aboriginal. 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
1 ‘ Christian Topography of Cosmas,’
translated by Dr. J. W. M‘Crindle
(Hakluyt Soc.), pp. 370-371. This
Gollas seems probably the same as
Mihirakula or Mihiragula.
2 We can hardly hope to discriminate
arnong these foreign invaders between
Hunas, Turushkas, Nakas, Shahis,
Daivaputras, etc., and may regard them
together as Indo-Skythians.