Indian Antiquary Vol 42

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

Page 87

MAROK, 1913.)
MISCELLANEA
83
"Aryans, perhaps associated with Turki tribes," moved with wives and children into the Punjab about 1700 B. ., and completely displaced the previous population, and, what is more curious, their noses bave retained unaltered since, notwithstanding that the Punjab has been the cockpit of races since the dawn of history almost down to our days, thus setting at naught at the same time the evidence enshrined in the Vedic Mantras and the necessities of the geographic control of all human affairs.
When all is said, there may still remain in the minds of some the feeling of doubt how a cult or a speech can travel by itself. The fire cult and the speech of the Aryas must have come to India in the wake of a peaceful overflow of people from the uplands of Central Asia into the plains of India, or buen the result of a peaceful intercourse between the Indian people and foreigner. But theories cannot be built on metaphors, and there is absolutely no evidence at present to guide to a solution of the problem. What we know for certain from the researches of Anthropologists and Philologista is that nearly 5000 years ago a race of tall, fair-skinned, narrow-headed giants, lived in the great steppe land extending from the north of the Carpathians to the north of Persia. The conditions of their life made them lead a pastoral life and tame the wild horse. They were savages who continued in the stone age, while their contemporaries in Egypt, Crete, Babylonia and probably India had begun to use iron tools. Among them the Indo-Germanic languages were evolved. About 2,500 B. O., the drying up of their steppes led them to migrate to the west and the south. One branch of these people settled in Bactria where they learned to worship fire and drink sma. From them this cult and this tongue came to India. It is well-known that cults can travel far without the help of the sword. The Christ cult arose in Jerusalem, and, though promulgated by humble and despised people, spread through Europe within a short time. The Mithra cult started from Persia and spread also throughout Earope, even to remote Britain and for a long time proval a powerful rival to Christianity. Oults take with them a sacred language wherever they go. Latin spread along with the Roman form of Ohristianity to Britain and Germany and profoundly affected the languages of those countries. So the fire cult spread in India, the "divine" soma juice providing sufficient temptation to people to take to the Aryan rites; along with the cult spread the Sanskrit language. How far Sanskrit spread as a language and how far it affected the languages of northern India, whether it supplanted any of them or degenerated into any of them or helped the existing languages to change into the modern vernacular is another story. This question has not been squarely faced as yet by any one and I propose to take it for discussion in a futare article.
MISCELLANEA. THE AGE OF SRIHARSKA.
| Paramara king sindhuraja of Malva, who, In the concluding stanza of the fifth canto of his according to Padmagupta's Navaadhasdn kachaNaishadhlyacharitam Briharsha refers to a work ritam, had the biruda Navaskhasanka and sacof his entitled Srivijayaprašasti, "the panegyric ceeded Vakpati shortly after A D. 994, we obof the glorious Vijaya.” In the concluding tain a date for the author of Naishadliyacharitain stanza of the 7th canto the poet refers to another that satisfies all the conditions. The king of work of his entitled Gandorvikakula-prasasti, Gauds to whom Gaudorvikakula-prahasti was "the panegyrio of the family of the kings of dedicated was Mahipala I. Briharsha, like Ganda ”; in that of the 17th canto to Chhinda- Bilhana in the 11th century, must have been a prasasti, “the panegyric of Ohhinda"; in stanza wandering pandit in the beginning of his career, 151 of the 22nd canto to Navasdhasankacharitam, "the life of Navashasanka"; and in the Mahipala I and tried to win their favours by concluding stanza of the same canto he states dedicating prakastis to them, before he secured
the patronage of the king of Kanauj. king of Kananj." If Vijaya of Srivijaya-prafasti
RAMA PRASAD OHANDA. is identified with Vijayapals of the Pratthara dynasty of Kanauj, an inscription of whose time
NOTE. is dated in 6. D. 960 (Kielhorn's N. I. List No. 39) Iam afraid, Briharsha cannot be placed so early and whose successor, Rajyapala, Wes a contem. as the close of the 20th century, as Mr. Rama porary of Sultan Muhammad of Gezni, Chhinda of Prasad Chanda contends. I agree with Bühler the Chhinda-pratasti with Lalls of the Chhinda (Jour. Bomb. As. Soc., Vol. X. p. 31 ff.) in acceptfamily whose Dewal prasasti is dated in A. D. ing the statement of Rajasekhara, author of the 992 (Kielhorn's N. I. List, No. 51); and Navast- Prabandhakosha that Sriharsha wrote the Naishabasanks of the Navashasankacharitam with the dhiya-charita at the bidding of Jayantachandra,