Page:History of India Vol 1.djvu/67

Rh under cultivation and dotted with villages and royal towns, and the kingdoms of the early Hindus extended over the whole of the Panjab. The barbarians either were exterminated or retreated before the ever-advancing line of Aryan civilization into those hills and fastnesses which their children still inhabit.

It may be imagined, however, that some of the weaker barbarians preferred subjection to extermination or exile; and the Rig-Veda contains allusions to Dasyus who at last owned the domination of the more powerful race and who adopted their civilization and their language. These, then, were the first Hinduized aborigines of India.

On the other hand, the Aryan conquerors were not always at peace among themselves. Sudas was an Aryan king, lord of the Tritsu tribe, and a mighty conqueror. We are frequently told that various Aryan tribes and kings combined against him, but he was victorious over them all. The allusions to these internecine wars among Aryan races, and to the particular tribes who fought against Sudas, especially in the famous battle known as the Battle of the Ten Kings, are historically among the most important passages in the Rig-Veda. The united armies of ten allied kings, aroused to combat by the priest Visvamitra, who had himself once been a warrior, met Sudas at the river Ravi (then called Parushni). Sudas is aided by divine help, invoked by his priest Vasishta, and by the river whose flood sweeps the foe to destruction. The following are verses from the pæan that celebrates the victory:—