Page:Prehistoric Ancient And Hindu India.djvu/13

 FOREWORD ix

great variety of vessels were manufactured. Copper, tin and lead had come into use and ornaments were made of gold, silver, ivory, bone, imported lapis-lazuli and of faience. Yet stone was still so freely used that the archae- ologists regard the early Indus settlers as a people of the Chalcolithic Age the transitional stage between the ages of stone and metal. Artifacts (articles made by man) of chert were still being manufactured for occupational purposes. Domesticated animals included the elephant and camel, as well as the pig, shorthorn and humped cattle, the buffalo, sheep and the dog. Barley, wheat and the cotton plant were cultivated, and spinning and weaving had reached an advanced stage. Clay figures and images and phallic baetylic stones suggest that Durga and Siva worship was of a very much greater antiquity in India than has hitherto been supposed.

It was formerly customary to explain, by wrongly adopting the theory of biological evolution, the gradual development of Vedic religion into the Brahmanical complex, with Brahma, Siva and Vishnu eclipsing Indra, Agni, Varuna and Mithra, and with the goddesses rising into prominence. The modern view, confirmed by the striking Indian discoveries, is that the process was rather one of " culture mixing ", and that the religious changes were due mainly to the fusion of Aryans and Dravidians and their distinctive cultures, the ancient Dravidians having been a refined and highly civilized people. As is shown in the chapters that follow, the Dravidians had a currency while yet the Aryans practised a system of barter, and were sea-traders before the introduction of a Sanskrit equivalent for the word " sea ".

Research in Indian pre-history and history has been further promoted by the aid of numismatology (science of coins in relation to history), by philology and by the study of art and inscriptions and a great abundance of literature in various languages. Some dynasties have been restored almost by numismatic data alone, and much light has been thrown upon the origin and development of styles in sculpture and architecture by the accumula-