CHAPTER I
A HISTORICAL SURVEY UP TO A.D. 700
In attempting to look back upon our own history, the first essential would appear to be the marking of a few of the more salient features, so that we may group round these a number of minor events and incidents. This will give us perspective; and whatever imperfection there may be in detail it will make the whole presentable. If, at this distance, we take a retrospect, the history of India of the Aryan invasions would appear, like our own Himalayas at a great distance, all smooth but for a few peaks of commanding height. 'Happy is the nation whose annals are a blank,' said Carlyle, and if we can derive comfort from this seeming blankness, we shall perhaps be in a delusion. I shall attempt, therefore, to present in outline the outstanding features with a view to clothing these later on to make them as presentable looking as we may.
We have to begin with the Aryans in their own homes wherever they might have been and move along with them. This will be extra-Indian in character and withal essential to the proper understanding of their doings in India. We shall name this the Pre-Indian aye of the Indo-Aryans circ. 3000 B.C. During this age the Aryans advance up to the Indian frontier. They are a nomadic-agricultural folk, already differentiated from their Iranian brethren, developing some of the features peculiar to the Indo-Aryans of the Rig Veda.
