Indian Antiquary Vol 41

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 232

228
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(OCTOBER, 1912.
Central India is described in the works of the Sátra period. The next on ward march, impelled by other than mere natural forces, is described in the epics of the Årgan land; the Råmdyara, describing the earliest movement, and the Mahábharata, the ambitious conquering march of the Aryan kings of the north. By the term Southern India,' I understand what is commonly known as the Deccan, which we may take as signifying the whole land to the south of the Vindhya Mountains known as Pâriyâtra in olden times, i.e., the limits of travelling. These mountains first formeci an effective barrier on the forward pushing Aryans; and by the wild animals that infested their intractable wilderness and by the wilder aboriginal tribes peopling their slopes, the progress of the northerner towards the south seems to have been checked for a long time. So much was the loss of life and property that they had suffered at the hands of the agencies that were at work to the south of their settlements in AryaFarta, that they ever after came to identify the south with death and called it Ydmya dik or Yama-dik, or that which points to the abode of death. We also see that their favourite line of march leading to the point where they met with the least resistance they called Agneya, from Agni, whom they took for their lead. They called Agni, purohita; referring by this symbol either to the use of fire in clearing forests that were ahead of their advance, or to the warmth, the quest of which must have determined their line of pressure. The latter seems to me to be the true symbol, considering how they must have been pressing forward in the glacial epocb from th: Arctic regions where must have been their primitive home, only under the sure lead of the quest of warmth. In the shape of high floods and storms, destruction must have then come to them from the south-west, which direction they therefore called Nairrtya, from Nirriti, 1.e., destruction. These lines of pursuit and avoidance seem to have been symbolised in the tantra that is used in sacrifices : वायव्यावामयान्तं', नैकत्यादीशा नान्तं. Agreeably to this surmise we find that in the Santivachana fri ta etc., that is made in the purificatory ceremony, the liturgical formula includes tarITET ET I gcai Tig fataht. This indicates that their advance was towards the south-east; because the prayer is addressed for the removal of the evil at the south-east point : and all trouble or misfortune is sought to be thrown into the north-east.1
Before the settlement of the Aryans in India was effected, the low-lying plains of the grea. rivers had been inhabited by the Dravidian race, and the first conflict of the Aryas and the Dravidas appears to have taken place in the extreme west and north of India.
That the Dravidians had planted their settlements so far up in the north and west is borne out by the fact that several Dravidian dialects, such as Brahui, Villi, and Santâl, are found stranded in the midst of other tongues in Baluchistan, Rajputânâ and Central India. But as the centre of gravity of the Dravidian peoples, as determined by the density of their population, lies somewhere about Mysore, we must take the south of India as the home of those peoples whence they might have spread to the north. There is evidence for this in the literature of the Tamils. It is said that long ago, the land had stretched farther south from Cape Comorin and all that region had belonged to the Pandiyan king. But at one time the sea gained over it, submerging many mounains and rivers, of which oper was one:
அடியிற் றள்ள்ள வரசர்க் குணர்த்தி வடிவே லெறித்தவான் பகைபொறாது பஃறுளி யாற்றுடன் பன்மலை யடுக்கத்து க்குமரிக் கோடுங் கொடுங்கடல் கொள்ள வடதிசைக் கங்கையுமி மயமுள்கொண்டு தென்றிசை யாண்ட தென்னவன் வாழி..
சிலப்பதிகாரம்- காகொண் காதை (17-22).
1 The countr.es to the north-east of their settlemouts they called aparajita, 6.c., unconquered or unsubdued.