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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(SEPTEMBER, 1994.
the Sruti about 600 B. C., are no longer tenable, nay hardly disputable. The results of the Vedic studies, elaborated by M. Bergaigne and by Profs. Pischel and Geldner, shew more and more clearly that even the oldest Saktas are not the productions of a people, combining the intellectual qualities of the ancient Greeks with the moral character of the ancient Tentons, as depicted by Tacitus in his romantic Germania - in short of a nation resembling the abstract Aryans or Indo-Europeans, created by the fancy of the older school of comparative philologists and destroyed by the researches of Prof. O. Schrader. The results, at which the Vedists of the philological school have arrived, make it probable that the Rishis closely resembled the Hindus of historical India. Thereby the supposition of Prof. Max Müller, that the early literary life of India showed "a greater luxuriance" than that of later periods becomes hard to credit, and the conjecture that the ancient Indians raced through the so-called Chhandas, Mantra and Brahmaņa periods at a furiously fast pace loses its chief support.
Moreover, irrespective of the results of the Vedic studies, it cannot be denied that all the facts, which the more complete exploration of the Brahmanical, Buddhist and Jaina literature and of the inscriptions has revealed of late years, prove the pre-chronological period of the Indo-Aryan history to extend very considerably beyond 1200 or 1500 B. C. This remark holds good with respect to the political history as well as to the history of literature and religion. It is now evident that the conquest of the South by the Brahmanical Indo-Aryans took place earlier than was assumed some fifteen years ago, and it is no longer doubtful that Prof. Lassen's estimate, who places it in the sixth century B. C. or even earlier 22 and before the colonisation of Ceylon, is nearer the truth than Dr. Burnell's, who believed that it must be placed after the beginning of our era. The sober facts, which hitherto have become known through the inscriptions, are that slices of the eastern and the western Dravida districts belonged to the Maurya empire, and that the remainder of the South was in the time of Asoka divided between the independent States of the Cholas, Pandyas, Keralas, Pulindas and Andhras. Aśoka's eastern Dravida possession, Kalinga, was inhabited, at the time of the conquest about 250 B. C., as he tells us in the thirteenth Rock-Edict, by numerous Brahmans and members of various sects, directed by ascetics. The Kalingas were, it would seem, exactly in the same state of civilisation as the inhabitants of India north of Ganges. The state, in which his Western Dravida province Mysore was, is not accurately described. But the two geographical names, Isila and Suvanagiri, which the Siddåpur edicts contain, are Aryan, and point to the conclusion that tho country was thoroughly under Aryan influence. The same inference may be drawn from the name of the neighbouring Vanavîsa, which is mentioned in the Buddhis. tic traditions of the times of Aśôka. Among the independent sonthern kingdomy, which Asoka mentions, there is only one, that of the Andhras, regarding which something definite is known. The inscription of the Blattiprolo Stûpa, which come from the Andhra districts and probably belong either to the times of Aśôka or to the reign of his immediate successor, shew clearly that the country was fully hinduised. They contain more than a score of names of chiefs and merchants, among which there is not one of Dravidian origin. All the personal names, as well as that of a towu, are Aryan, and among them we find the familiar Brahmanical appellations Kubiraka, i, e., Kabêraka, Vaghava, i.e., Vyaghrapad, Bharado, i.e., Bharata, Satugh0, . e., Satrughna, Jôtô, 1. e., Jayanta, Pigalô, 1. e., Pingala, Pigaha, i. e., Vigraha (Brahman), which clearly prove an acquaintance with Brahmanical mythology and with the Epic legends. The same documents speak also of the existence of guilds and goshthís, or committees of trustees supervising religious foundations, such as were known all through Aryan India. Some fifty or sixty yenrs after Asoka, the widow of the third Andhra king Satakani I., Queen Nayanika, informs us in the large Nânåghât inscription, that she was an adherent of the old Karmamarga and caused numerous expensive Srauta sacrifices to be offered. Further, she invokes Krishna and Samkarshana, the song of the Moon. She thus indicates that the Vaishnara creed was prevalent in the south, side by side with the sacrificial worship of the Vedic deities. These
* Indische Altherthumskunde, Vol. II. p. 119.
