224 SURG.-GEN. C. A. GORDON, M.D., €.B., ETC., ON 
down to our days are rude stone circles and upright slabs or 
mounds beneath which they buried their dead. In contrast 
to the lighter skinned Aryan invaders, those more ancient 
races were dark, or even black, as their descendants con- 
tinue still to be. That they were Mongolian in feature 
appears from various allusions which occur in early poetry. 
One Vedic singer speaks of them as “‘ noseless,” or flat-nosed, 
while another praises his own “ beautiful nosed” gods. 
Other epithets more or less scornful were applied to thein ; 
thus they were designated Dasyus, or “ menials,” Dasas, or 
“ slaves,” ‘ disturbers of sacrifices,” “ raw eaters,” “ not 
sacrificing,” “ without gods,” “monsters,” “demons,” &e. 
Whence came those pre-Aryan representatives of more 
ancient population? It is said of them that they preserve 
dim memories of a time when the tribes dwelt under the 
shadows of mightier hill ranges than any to be found on the 
south of the river plains of Bengal. Their languages are 
held to indicate that they belonged to the three great stocks 
known as the Tibeto-Burman, the Kolarian (i.e. Sontal), and 
the Dravidian, the latter chiefly represented by the people of 
extreme Southern India. 
Of the races or tribes thus alluded to,* some important 
particulars are contained in a recently-published Handbook 
on Indian Art ;f although they refer to a period estimated to 
be a thousand years subsequent to the Aryan invasion of the 
Punjab, and to a date subsequent to that, when, about B.C. 
1500, as Brahminical Hindoos, they had acquired the tract of 
country then called Brahmavata, which extended to a point 
about 100 miles north-west of Delhi, namely, the Kurus in- 
habited the country about Paniput, the Matsyas that about 
Jeypore, the Panchalas the Gangetic Doab and Rohilkund, 
the Surassenas the country about Muttra. But I regret my 
inability to obtain particulars in regard to the ethnic relations 
of the peoples indicated by these names. The subject is one 
for further investigation. 
The most ancient known work pertaining to India is the 
book of the Hindoo Scriptures, named the Veda, i.e., “ Divine 
knowledge,” the approximate date of which is the 10th to 
14th century B.c. There are various statements as to the 
~ origin of the Vedas. One is that the hymns emanated like 
breath from Brahma, the soul of the universe. It is agreed 
* Approximate dates, B.c. 1500 and 1000. Some scholars carry back 
their dates another thousand years. 
+ By Sir George C. M. Birdwood, K.C.S.1., vol. i, p. 36. 
: oe ' y 
SR : , f h- rar ; 
v nt er di, AL Peet 1th 
/ v 
