Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/815

791 HISTORY.] INDIA 791 B.C.). 1 Salihdvana, from whom the Saka or Scythian era took its commencement (78 A.D.), is held by some authorities to have been a Takshuk. 2 In the 7th century A.D. Taki, 3 perhaps derived from the same race, was the capital of the Punjab. The Scythic Takshaks are supposed to have been the source of the great serpent race, the Takshaks or Nagas, who figure so prominently in Sanskrit literature and art, and whose name is still retained by the Naga- tribes of our own day. The words Naga and Takshak in Sanskrit both mean &quot; a snake,&quot; or mythological tailed monster. The Takshaks are identified with the Scythian Takkas, and the Nagas have been connected with the Tartar patriarch Nagas, the second son of El-khan. 4 The two names, however, seem to have been applied by the Sanskrit writers to a variety of non-Aryan peoples in India, whose religion i- was of an anti-Aryan type. We learn, for example, how &quot; :ins the four PAnclu brethren of the MahabhArata turned out irtl1 &quot; the snake-king Takshuka from his primaeval Khandava ia forest. The Takshaks and Nagas were the tree and serpent worshippers, whose rites and objects of adoration have impressed themselves so deeply on the architecture and sculpture of India. The names were applied in a confused manner to different races of Scythic origin ; and the greatest authority on tree and serpent worship in India has deliberately selected the term &quot; Scythian &quot; for the anti- Aryan elements which entered so largely into the Indian religions both in ancient and modern times. 5 The Chinese records give a full account of the Naga geography of ancient India. They enumerate numerous and powerful Naga kingdoms, from which Buddhism derived many of its con verts. The Chinese chroniclers, indeed, classify the Naga princes of India into two great divisions, as Buddhists and non-Buddhists. The serpent worship which formed so typical a characteristic. of the Indo-Scythic races led the Chinese to confound them with the objects of their adora tion ; and the Indian Nagas and their rites se m to have supplied the Dragon races of Chinese Buddhism and of religious and secular art in China. iak- As the Greek invaders found RAwal Pindi district in possession of a Scythic race of Takkas in 327 B.C., so the Musalman conqueror found it inhabited by a fierce non- Aryan race of Ghakkars thirteen hundred years later. The Ghakkars for a time imperilled the safety of Muhmud of Ghazni in 1008 A.D. Ferishta describes them as savages addicted to polyandry and infanticide. The tide of Mahometan conquest rolled on, but the Ghakkars remained in possession of their submontane tract. In 1205 they slew the second Mahometan conquerer of India, Muhammad Ghori, in his tent, and ravaged the Punjab to the gates of Lahore; and, in spite of conversion to Islam by the sword, it was not till 1525 that they made their submission to BAbar in return for a grant of country. During the next two cen turies they rendered great services to the Mughal dynasty against the Afghan usurpers, and rose to high influence in the Punjab. Ddven from the plains by the Sikhs in 1765, the Ghakkar chiefs maintained their independence in the Murree (Marri) Hills till 1830, when they were crushed 1 Arrian. The Brahman mythologists, of course, found an Aryan pedigree for so important a person as King Taksha, and make him the son of Bharata, and nephew of Rama-chandra ! 9 Tod, Rdjdsthdn, i. 95 (ed. 1873). 3 Taki, or Asarur, 45 miles west of Lahore. General Cunningham, Anc. Gcog. Ind., p. 191, and map vi. (ed. 1871). This Taki lies con siderably to the south-east of the Takshasila of Alexander s expedition. 4 Tod, fijjdsthdn, i. 53 (ed. 1873). 8 Dr J. Fergusson s Tree and Serpent Worship, p. 71-72. (India Museum, 4to, 1868). For the results of more recent local research, vanaks Narayan Mandlik s &quot;Serpent Worship in Western India,&quot; and other essays, in the Bombay As. Soc. Journal. after a bloody struggle. In 1849 Rawal Pindi passed, with the rest of the Sikh territories, under British rule. But the Ghakkars revolted four years afterwards, and threatened Murree, the summer capital of the Punjab, so late as 1857. They now number only 10,153 persons, described by the British officers as &quot; a fine spirited race, gentlemen in ancestry and bearing, and clinging under all reverses to the traditions of noble blood.&quot; We have selected the inhabitants of Rawal Pindi district to illustrate the long-continued presence and vitality of the non-Aryan races in India. We shall deal more briefly with other parts of the country. Proceeding inwards to the North-Western Provinces, we find traces of an early Buddhist civilization having been overturned by rude non- Aryan races. In Bareilly district, for example, the wild: Ahirs from the north, the Bhils from the south, and the BLils. Bhars from the west seem to have expelled highly developed Aryan communities not long before 1000 A.D. Still farther to the east, all remains of prehistoric masonry in Oudh and the North- Western Provinces are assigned either to the ancient Buddhists or to a mediaeval race of Bhars. The Ehars. Bhars appear to have possessed the north Gangetic plains in the centuries coeval with the fall of Buddhism. Their kingdoms extended over most of Oudh, and lofty mounds covered with ancient groves still mark the sites of their forgotten cities. They are the mysterious &quot;fort-builders&quot; to whom the peasantry ascribe any ruin of unusual size. In the western districts their power is said to have been crushed by the Sharki dynasty of Jaunpur in the end of the 14th century. In the -eastern districts of the north Gan getic plain, the Bhars figure still more prominently in local traditions, and an attempt has been made to trace their continuous history. In Gorakhpur district a movement of aboriginal Tharus and Bhars seems to have overwhelmed the early outposts of Aryan civilization several centuries before Christ. They afterwards became vassals of tho Buddhist kingdom of Behar on the south-east, and on tho fall of that power, about 550, the Bhars regained their independence. The Chinese pilgrim in the 7th century comments on the large number of monasteries and towers iu this region the latter probably monuments of the struggle with the aboriginal Bhars, who were there finally crushed between the 7th and 10th centuries. As we advance still farther eastwards into Bengal, we find that the non-Aryan races have within historical time supplied a large part of the Hindu population. In the north the Koch established their dominion upon the ruins Koch. of the Aryan kingdom of Kamrup, which the Afghan king of Bengal had overthrown in 1489. The Koch gave their name to the native state of Kuch (Cooch) Behar, and their descendants, together with those of other non-Aryan tribes, form the mass of the people in the neighbouring British districts. Some eluded the effects of their low- origin by becoming Musalmans, and thus obtained that social equality which IslAm grants to all mankind. The rest have merged more or less into the Hindu population ; but masses of them claim, in virtue of their position as an old dominant race, to belong to the Kshattriya caste. They call themselves Rajbansis, a term exactly correspond ing to the Rajputs of western India. The raj As of Kuch Behar lay claim to a divine origin, in order toc&amp;lt; nceal their aboriginal descent; and all remembrance of the Koch tribe is carefully avoided at court. Proceeding still eastwards, we enter the adjacent valley of Assam, until last century the seat of another non-Aryan ruling race. The Ahams entered Assam from the south- Ahams. east about 1350 (?), had firmly established their power by 1663, gradually yielded to Hinduism, and were over powered by fresh invasions from Burmah between 1750 and 1820, when the valley was Annexed to British India.