Indian Antiquary Vol 59

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 252

228
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
NOVEMBER, 1930
work is not worthy of very careful study. Where the writer adheres to his text he is deserving of close consideration. When he gives us such gtriking information as (p. 373) in England until recently horses were used in the driving of ploughs, or augurs well for the future of Indian politics from the Assumed happiness of the country in the days of 1 Mauryan emperors, we must needs handle his pages with gome caution.
R. E. E.
19TORY OF PRE-MUSALMAN INDIA, vol. I. Prehistoric India, by V. RANGACHARYA, M.A. 91' x 51'; pp. vii+247. Madras, 1929.
The author has set himself the big and somewhat ambitious task of compiling a history of India from the earliest times down to the Muhammadan con quest, to be completed in 9 volumes, which will deal with the following periods : (1) Pre-historic India ; (2) Vedic Indio ; (3) India from 650 B.c. to 320 B.C.; (4) the Mauryan Empire ; (5) India from the fall of the Mauryas to the rise of the Guptas; (6) the Gupta Empire ; (7) North India from 600 to 1200 A.D.; (8) Dakkan from 600 to 1310 A.D.; and (9) the Tamil States from 600 to 1310 A.D. The volume before us treats of prehistoric India, carrying us down only to the so-called "Vedic period." Chapter I deals chiefly with the geological evolution of the continent. The next four chapters, which are devoted to Early Man and the Eolithic Age, the Paleolithic Age and the transition from this to the Neolithic Age, contain much that from the nature of things must be speculative. When we reach the Neolithio Age (Ch. VI) we stand upon somewhat firmer ground, as, thanks to the lifelong labour of Bruce Foote and the more recent work in the same field, we have now &
e now a mass of material, found over a wide area (chiefly to the south of the Vindhyas and Aravallis) more or less definitely assignable to this period. Mr. Rangacharya collates the evidence available from neolithic sites and offer his suggestions as to the life and culture of the people of that age, their habitations, occupations, arts, dress, food, religion, etc. He emphasizes the reason which apparently led to the selection of sites for settlement by the neolithic folk, viz., the presence of supplies of trap rock, the material chiefly used by them in fashioning their implements, just as tho paleolithio men seem have been guided by the occurence of light-coloured
curence of light-coloured quartzite.
Though not prepared to accept Mr. P.T. Srinivasa Aiyangar's views as to the five geographical divi. siong of the people into coastal', 'agricultural', 'pastoral', 'hilly' and 'desert' being formed in the neolithic period, or as to the Vedic term pracajana referring to those five types, he is inclined to think that the tendency for the neolithic people to become specialized in distinct areas was "instrumental in inspiring and fostering" the system of caste. All that we shall say hore is, that there seem cogent ronyons for seeking an indigenous origin for this
system, rather than for regarding it as introduced by the "Aryan invaders." Again, Mr. Rangacharya declines to endorse the suggestion of Mr. P. T. S. Aiyangar and others that the Aryans were mere descendants of the Dravidians and be. came estranged from the latter only by the adoption of the fire cult and the priestly language of Sanskrit. He thinks the fact is that the Aryans and the Dravidians originally belonged to the same raco the Mediterranean), but to different siages of culture, becoming further differentiated by the mixture of Dravidians with pre-Dravidians and by diversity of climatic environment.
In Chapter VII (the Advent of Metals) he puts forward arguments for regarding gold as an Indian discovery, and suggests that the art of smelting copper may also prove to have originated in India. Chapter VIII is devoted to tile Indus Valley Civili. zation, and the question whether it was prior to or later than the Sumerian culture is discussed: but here the author, like all other scholars intorested in this subject, is handicapped by the want of full reports of what has actually been found at Mohenjo. daro and Harappa. Until such details are available it is somewhat premature to discuss the conclusions suggested. As regards the vexed question of the original home of the Aryans, he writes (Ch. IX): "The probability of the Kashmir-Bactrian (sic). Panjab hypothesis is, in my opinion, not less strong than that of the European........ We may thug conclude that about 3000 B.C. & section of the Mediterranean dolicocephals who occupied the region of Bactria Kashmir-Himalayan uplands. the lands of the archaic Vedic and Paisachi dialecta. & sacrificial cult and during the next milienium gra. dually spread themselves across the Western Asiatic plateau, influenced the Babylonian and Egyptian civilizations and penetrating the European plain through the Caspian, Black Sea and Balkan regions, laid the foundations of Aryan Europe." We fear this view cannot help materially to solve the difficulties of this problem. As to the date of the Vedic civilization he seems disposed to agree generally with Dr. Wiuwernitz and MM. H. P. Sastri, and he considers that their views receive corroboration from the discoveries since mado at Mohenjodoro and Harappa,
The author has presented tho material culled from many sources in a very readablo form, interwoven largely with original observations often meritin consideration. The typographical blemished are rather numerous, due it seems to the hurry with which, we are told, the volume was j'rinted; but we do not understand why the strange forms "PalaOzoic," "Mes-Ozoic," etc., have been allowed to stand. Such defects should be avoided in the ensuing volumes. We should like to add a tribute to the fair-minded spirit in which Mr. Rangacharya states the theories and opinions of others and the impartiality with which he treate them.
C. L. A. W.O.