Page:The history of caste in India.pdf/57

 Mathurā, and ruled there for more than a century seemingly in subordination to the Parthian power. Another section of the Shaka horde or the Parthians themselves occupied the peninsula of Surāshtra or Kathiawar, and established a dynasty of satraps there, which lasted for centuries. Another tribe of Scythians, cognate with Shakas and called Kushans, entered India by the beginning of the Christian era, and conquered Punjab and Kabul. King Kanishka of this tribe is well known. It appears that the Kushan dynasty held its own for a long time, as we hear of them as late as 360 A. D.

The Bactrian Greeks were not gone. Some of their tribes remained in India as a fighting element till very late. If they did not remain there, some other warlike foreign tribe which passed by their name "Yavanas" did remain. We find references to them along with Shakas and Pahlavas, in the Andhra inscription of 126 A. D. of the Chaitya cave at Nasik.

The narration of these few facts will make it sufficiently clear that during these five centuries the country was infested by foreigners. It should also be noted that some of these foreigners were Buddhists, some Brahminists, while some were observing Outlandish beliefs and practices. Again for a considerable period the foreigners were dominant, and probably stayed in India permanently. Their relation with the Hindu society, or their position in the Hindu social system, must have been in the process of adjustment during this period. Hindu society, as it appears ultimately, had to assimilate this element.

Another peculiarity of this period was closer relations between the North and the South. It is true that some