1 THE ARYAN CONQUEST. 25
2 According to the internal evidence furnished in the Rig Veda, they had not
3 spread beyond the north-west of India fifteen centuries before the Christian
4 era, or some 8,400 years ago.* Sir William Jones traces the foundation of
5 the Indian empire to above 3,800 years from the present time. Dr. Wilson,
6 in his excellent work called India Three Thousand Years Ago, computes
7 the period at fifteen hundred years before Christ. We learn from the
8 Hebrew scriptures that, about 1000 B.c., the merchants of Tyre and Is-
9 rael sailed in ships from Eltah, on the coast of the Arabian Gulf, for the
10 countries of the south, and, after three years’ absence, returned laden with
11 gold, silver, precious stones, ivory, sandalwood, peacocks and apes. Now,
12 peacocks and sandalwood belong exclusively to the regions of India, and the
13 Hebrews denote these and other articles by Sanskrit names, The Upper
14 Indus and the upland valleys of the Himdlayas are rich in gold, and it
15 follows from this, assuming that the country visited wes India, that the
16 Aryans were in possession of that country as early as 1000 Bc. Ptolemy
17 places the land of the Abiria at the mouth of the Indus, and, according
18 to an Aryan poem, this nation possessed cows, camels, sheep and goats.
19 Abiria is identified with the Ophir of the Hebrews and the Ahir of India,
20 meaning a grazier, and, if this supposition be correct, it proves that a tribe
21 possessing cattle settled on the banks of the Indus anterior to 1000 8.c., and
22 that it could have been no other tribe than the Arya. From these and other
23 data Max Duncker, the eminent German scholar, concludes that the Aryans
24 must have descended into the valley of the Indus about the year 2000 B.c., 4.e.,
25 “about the time when the Kingdom of Elam was predominant in the valley
26 of the Euphrates and Tigris, when Assyria still stood under the dominion of
27 Babylon and the kingdom of Memphis was ruled by the Hyksos.”
28 About the time when the Aryans invaded India, tribes speaking the
29 same language immigrated into Europe and settled in Greece, different tracts
30 of Scandinavia, Germany and Italy, the seat of Imperial Rome. One of
31 the western offshoots founded the Persian monarchy, while another stock
32 settled in Spain and ancient England. Modern linguistic researches have
33 established the unity of the great Aryan family from Ceylon to Great
34 Britain and Scandinavia, from the farthest north to the equator. The
35 Brahmins, the Rajputs and the English are alike the descendants of the
36 ancient Aryans. The term Avya really applies to a race of Brahmins whose
37 abode was situated near the great ranges of the Caucasus. Emerging from
38 the grand school of the Chaldean magi at Babylon, these Brahmins carried
39 their learning and arts northwards as far as the Caspian and Euxine.
40 Mingling, in after times, with the learned colony of Egyptians, they diffused
41 the light of science over the countries to the north and east, namely, Persia,
42 Bactria, Media, Sogdiana, Thibet and Khata.
43 From the Teutons, one of the branches of the great family of the
44 Aryans, have descended the English, who, though widely separated from the
45 Hindus of India, have a claim to a common ancestry with them. It was,
46 however, long after the introduction of Hindu and Greek civilization that
47 the English nation emerged from a state of utter barbarism.
48 In point of physiognomy the Aryans of India beara close resemblance to
49 their brothers of the West. Their straight noses and finely-chiselled features
50 and their light colour all bear the noble Caucasian stamp possessed by them in
51 common with the nations of the West. They once spoke Sanskrit in its rude
52 form and are still acquainted with that language. Modern philologists have pro-
53 ved the common origin of the Sanskrit with the learned languages of the West.
54 * Three hundred years later the Institutes of Mani introduced a reform into the religion
55 and government of the Hindus, The Purdnas are a compilation of much later date.
56 Unity of the great
57 Aryan family from
58 Ceylon to Great Bri-
59 tain and other Buro~
60 pean countries,
61 The descent of the
62 English.
63 Physioguomic anal-
64 ogy between the
65 Aryans of India and.
66 those of the West.
67 Sri Satguru J agjit Singh J i eLibrary NamdhariElibrary@ gmail.com