The linguistic affinity of many of the non-Aryan peoples of India, is shown by the fact that they take their tribal designations from their word for man in their respective dialects,—thus Bala-li, Dhima-li, Santa-li, Banga-li, the people of Bala, Dhima, Bangs, etc. ; and the very general term Mi (man) supplies the basis of the race name to not less than forty ascertained tribes,— thus the Du-mi, Ka-mi, Anga-mi, Mi-than.
The prior immigrants from the north have been termed Scythic, Turanian, Mongolian, Kolarian, Tamulian, and Dravidian. All these designations distinguish them from that branch of the Aryan races (Iranian, Indo-Atlantic, Caucasian, Medi terranean) now dispersed through India proper, called by Humboldt East Aryans or Brahmanic Indians. The West Aryans or Persians had separated and migrated into the northern country of the Zend, where they combined a belief in Ormuzd and Ahriman with a spiritualized venera tion of nature. But the East Aryans came through the Panjab into India proper, and they have con tinued up to the present time to exert a great influence on the people. It was au immigration on the borders of historic times. Much connected with this people remains in obscurity, for they have been a non-recording race. Chevalier Bun sen supposes that they reached the land of the Five Rivers some time between 4000 and 3000 B.C.; but we have no standard whatever, from our present point of view, by which to estimate the length of time period from their immigration into the country of the Indus down to their farther advance to the land of the Saraswati. All we can say regarding them is, that peculiar habits of life were contracted in the land of the Five Rivers, and that, out of the elemental religion there instituted, allusions to which are found in the oldest Vedic hymns, the Brahmanical system, with a new mythology and the introduction of castes, gradu ally grew up on the eastern side of the butlej. That author is, however, of opinion that the period of the passage of the Sutlej and immigration to wards the Saraswati occurred from B.C. 3300 to B.C. 3000. Whilst they dwelt in the country of the Five Rivers, from B.C. 4000 to 3000, little change in their habits and belief seems, in his opinion, to have occurred. But about B.C. 3100 or 3000 their power on the Indus appears to have been broken, in consequence of some war with one of the surrounding kingdoms, and from the latter date India east of the Sutlej up to the extent of the Aryan conquests adopted Brahman ism. From that time the religious views, forms, and habits of Bactria were for ever abandoned by the East Aryan immigrants, and between B.C. 3000 to B.c. 1900 they extended their Brahmanical religion from the Saraswati to the Doab. It was
this race who called the portion which came under their own rule by the name of Aryavarta, the abode of the Aryans. In classical Sanskrit it was also known as Bharata and Bharata-varsha, and also Jambu-Dwipa. But by the western nations, India east of the Indus was always India, and was never called Arya by any writer.
This Aryan or Sanskrit speaking colony of Brahmans, Kshatriyas, and Vaisyas found the greater part of Northern India peopled by rude tribes, whom they designated M'hlecha, Dasya, Nishada, etc., and it is the received opinion that many of those prior occupants were of Scythian, or at least of non-Aryan origin. But to a much later period, and when the Aryans were in full occuption of the country from the Indus to the Ganges and into Bengal, all to the south of the Vindhya mountains continued to be occupied by Turanian races. An immigration into Ceylon of a colony of Aryans from Magadha took place about B.C. 550 (B.c. 543) ; and Wajeya, the leader of the Ceylon expedition, is said in the Mahawanso to have married the daughter of the king of Pandu. But now, unless Travancore be an exception, there is no large Aryan colony in any part of the south of the Peninsula of India, individual members of that race alone appear ing scattered amongst the nations occupying it. There is nothing in history to show, nor is there in the physical appearance of the races to the east of the Ganges and of the Bay of Bengal any thing to warrant, the belief that these Fast Aryan immigrants ever advanced, in masses, beyond their present locality north of the Vindhya range.
Brahmanic Life. — They brought with them views as to the gradations of social rank, against which, up to the present day, all other races and even their own reformers have been repeatedly striving ; but they likewise brought larger intellect, letters, and a higher civilisation, not only enabling them to hold a position of superiority, but to inspire the prior races with the desire to be enrolled amongst the Aryan classes of Brahmans,Kshatriya, Vaisya, and Sudra. These East Aryan immigrants throughout all India proper possess the lands best suited for tillage, and in Travancore they are the sole landlords. When they first reached the Panjab, they depended on their horses. Arrived in India, they tamed the elephant, which finally rivalled the chariot. In the time of the Maha bharata, n.c. 1400 ? Bliagadatta, Uttara, Duryodh ana, Anvinda, and others fought on elephants. At the time of Alexander's invasion (B.c. 327) elephants had almost completely superseded cars. And in their wars they placed the infantry in the centre, and the horse and elephants on the flanks of their armies.