Indian Antiquary Vol 50

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

Page 200

190
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ JUNE, 1921
The ethnological evidence, which is now at our disposal, points to the fact that from a very early period in the history of the world, Eastern Turkestan was peopled by an Aryan race and that they attained to a stage of civilisation not inferior to that of Bactria.47 Recent investigations 48 of other explorers have further strengthened this view. The Aryan Tajik a who were the ancient inhabitants of the fertile parts of Turkestan, were partly compelled by hostile invasions to take shelter in the mountains. They are now known as Galchas. It is believed that the races who inhabit Eastern Turkestan are chiefly derived from this stoek, though not unmixed with Mongolian and Tartan elements. The fact that even in the centuries before the Christjan era Indian culture spread rapidly into these parts of Asia lends additional force to the theory that the inhabitants of the Tarim Basin were a people closely allied to the Indo-Aryans, and were therefore especially susceptible to influences from India. CONCLUSION.
In Pali literature there are definite references to the region immediately to the north of the Himalaya mountains and a more or less legendary account of countries further to the north. It preserves the reminiscences of the red-tinted up-lands which lay beyond the Himalaya mountains; the lakes from which the rivers of the Gangetic plain took their rise; the famous Kailasa peak and, far to the north of it, the "Lord of Mountains," the Meru; the land of the Uttarakurus with its rich fields, god-like men and bounteous crops; the mighty Vessavana, the city of Alakmanda (Sans. Alaknanda), and the mineral wealth of these northern lands; the four great Deipas or countries known as Kuru, Aparagoyaniya, Pârvavideha and Jambudvipa.
These memories have a significance which can only be realised when compared with such reminiscences as are preserved in the Purâṇas, the Epic literature, the Vedas and the ZendAvesta of the Persians. Viewed in the light of modern researches, they reveal facts of great value which throw a considera ble light upon the early race-movements of the Aryan stock.
The oldest Iranian records speak of Yima, son of Vivanghat (Sanskrit, Yama, son of Vivasvat) having been placed at the head of this branch of the Aryans and of their proceeding gradually southwards as they and their flocks multiplied in number and as necessity arose for further expansion, until a time came when the winters became very severe and the descending snow-line devastated everything lying in its way. The enumeration of good lands given in the Vendidâd begins with Airyânâ Vaego, which, according to some authorities, lay to the north of the Oxus. Yima seems to have been the first leader of the Irano-Aryans and Zarathustra, or Zoroaster, their first and greatest Prophet. The differences between this branch of the Aryan race and the Indian branch became acute somewhere north of the Oxus, as it is in this region that we find a clear and definite anti-Daevic propaganda; and there is ample evidence to show that the hostilities between the two races continued as far south as Afghanistan in the course of their southward emigration.
Turning now to the Vedic evidence, it is abundantly clear that the Indo-Aryans had migrated from a mountainous country with valleys affording good pastures for the large flocks which they possessed and which constituted their wealth. It is also clear that they came from the Pamir region along the valleys of the rivers which bring the drainage of the western Himalayas into the plains of N. W. India.
47 Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, Turkestan. 48 Sir Aurel Stein, Ancient Khotan.