COMMERCE OF INDIA. 



191 



had reigned for a long period in Babylon the Aryans invaded 

 Chaldaea, and pressing at the same time on the Kanaanites of 

 the Persian Gulf and the Dravidians in Persia, drove the 

 former towards the North- West and the latter to the South- 

 East to India. By degrees the Aryan invaders settled in the 

 conquered country but the history of their conquest, of their 

 establishment, and of their national adventures, is up to now 

 a sealed book, while we are well informed of contemporary 

 and previous Egyptian and Babylonian history. 



The Aryan immigration to India proceeded slowly, the 

 new comers had most probably to overcome the spirited resist- 

 ance of the old inhabitants. They did not go beyond the 

 frontiers of the Punjab till the fifteenth century before Christ, 

 the Brahmanic influence spread gradually to the South, the 

 Buddhist and Jain immigrants most likely preceding the 

 Brahmans, whose arrival there it is difficult to fix in the 

 absence of historical evidence. But when we hear of the 

 early Indian trade, especially that from and to the Southern 

 Peninsuh . the Deccan, we may assume this commerce to have 

 been carried on rather by non- Aryan than by Aryan Hindus. 



In a discussion on commerce the roads assuredly claim the 

 first attention, as on them the traffic takes place. As the 

 roads on land are generally along the beaten paths of nature, 

 and these are not materially changed in historical times, we 

 may take it for granted, that as a rule, the great high roads 

 of yore are also the high roads of to-day. New roads may 

 be opened, old ones may fall into disuse and be closed, but, as 

 formerly art was not thus at the disposal of industry and 

 employed in opening tunnels through mountain ranges or 

 under the surface of the earth, the most important changes 

 respecting the direction and the use of roads were rather due to 

 political complications than to other reasons. 



In the second book of the Ramayana, we find mentioned, 

 a road leading from Ayodhya, the modern Oudh, to Eajagriha, 



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