Page:History of India Vol 1.djvu/116



HEN once the Aryan Hindus had reached the Sutlaj, they lost but little time in crossing it and hastening to the valley of the Ganges, so that, in the course of centuries, the entire region as far as the modern Tirhut was the seat of powerful kingdoms and nationalities, who cultivated science and literature in their schools and developed new forms of religion and of civilization widely different from those of the Vedic Period.

Among the nations who flourished in the Ganges valley and left their names in the epic literature of India, the most renowned are the Kurus, who had their kingdom near the modern Delhi; the Panchalas, who settled farther to the southeast, near the present Kanauj; the Kosalas, who occupied the land between the Ganges and the Gandak, or Gunduck, which includes the modern Oudh; the Videhas, who lived beyond the Gandak, in what is now known as Tirhut; and the Kasis, who settled about the modern Benares. These were the most renowned nations of the second period, though other less powerful nationalities also flourished and extended their kingdoms from time to time.