Page:History of India Vol 1.djvu/32

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CHAPTER II

THE INDO-ARYANS AND THEIR LITERATURE

THE site of the early home of the Aryans has been a subject of endless controversies among scholars. Into this mooted problem we cannot enter here. Suffice it to say that enthusiastic and patriotic Hindu scholars will not admit that the first home of the Aryans was anywhere outside of India; while equally patriotic European scholars would place the abode of the primitive Aryans on the shores of the Baltic Sea. We need hardly say that it is not our object to enter into this discussion, and we merely repeat here that it is universally granted that the civilization, religion, language, and literature of the Hindus, from the earliest ages to the present day, are centred in India, and in India alone. There are, however, a number of facts about the life of the primitive Aryans regarding which there is no dispute.

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