Indian Antiquary Vol 34

SR No.: 032526
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 548
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 18 MB

Page 282

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[NOVEMBER, 1905.
attained without exhaustive study on the spot by qualified students of ancient topography, skilled in critical methods. But, after reading the observations of Messrs. Pearson, Norman, and Talbot, I still venture to hold the opinion that, on the evidence now available, Abbott's solution is the best. VINCENT A. SMITH. 20-6-05.]
254
THE
HE first successful attempt to write an Early History of India has no doubt received the attention which it deserves. In detail the subject has been ably treated by scholars, soldiers, and historians, but the general reader has hitherto been without a connected account of the whole. So much, perhaps, I may be permitted to say without claiming to be a competent critic of Mr. Vincent Smith's interesting volume. My only reason for attempting to discuss the questions which give a title to this paper, is that I enjoyed some special advantages for forming an opinion. The theories of antiquary or strategist may often receive confirmation or correction when considered from the point of view of one who happens to have a good knowledge of the ground. As Inspector of Schools for about twenty years (1865-1885) I marched with my camels and tents over the whole country between Agra and Peshawar, and became acquainted in a special manner with the districts abont Râwal Pindi and west of Lahore. Twice during the rainy season I made the voyage from Jihlam to Multân in a country boat. And all this time, being interested in antiquities, I examined everything that came in my way with the help of such books and maps as were available at the time. I made no notes, or measurements, or excavations. But it was my amusement to hunt up old mounds and ruins instead of going out with a gun as most of my friends would do under similar circumstances. It was my desire to get a sound general idea of Indian History as a whole, separating, if possible, Vedic India from the India of Alexander, and that again from Buddhist India. Certain clear views seemed to emerge, and on the whole were amply supported by documentary evidence. But sometimes the written record would appear to conflict with facts or probabilities. Perhaps no satisfactory explanation would be forthcoming, but perplexity would at least encourage a more minute study of details than would have been undertaken otherwise. To give an instance. According to Manu, quoted by Elphinstone,' the sacred land of the Hindus was a narrow tract between the rivers Sarasvati and Drishad wati, or Ghaggar. Both these rivers, as we know them, are weak streams not worthy to be mentioned in the same breath with the Ganges and Jumna. But the traveller from Ambala to Simla sees upon his left hand and upon his right the stupendous gorges from which the Sutlaj and the Ghaggar descend upon the plains. To understand the full significance of these gorges it may be necessary to go back to the glacial period. It is however a reasonable conjecture that within the period of history the Sutlej united with the Sarasvati and Ghaggar to form the great river which once flowed into the Indus through Bahawalpur, and that then Brahmâvarta was a Doâb which might be compared with that of the Ganges and Jumna. In the Greek accounts of the rivers of the Panjab nothing is more surprising than the omission of the Sutlaj. Mention of the Hydaspes, Akesines, Hydraotes, and Hyphasis is frequent and explicit, but after the Hyphasis comes the country of the Ganges. Only Pliny gives a hint of the true explanation. "To the Hesidrus (Sutlaj) 169 miles" from the Hyphasis. "To the Jomanes (Jumna) an equal distance." Consistent with such an opinion is the statement that there is no ridge of high ground between the Indus and the Ganges, and that a very trifling change of level would often turn the upper waters of one river into the other as may perhaps have occurred in past time. The Hyphasis (Biâs) in fact is known to have had an independent course into the Indus, and it is further supposed that there has been a gradual uprising of the watershed of the Indus and Ganges systems outside the Himalayas - "an hypothesis supported by the undoubted fact that the Jumna has within a recent period
1 History of India, p. 225. Pliny, Nat. Hist. VI. 21.
2 Early History, p. 85.
• Imperial Gazetteer, Vol. VI. p. 663.