330 
REPORT—1847. 
plains of the Holy Land (Brahma-varta) ; we see them at war with migbtj 
kings, and often engaged in iiostilities with each other, each imroigratinf 
tribe pushing their predecessors successively more ami more down to the 
south. Afterwards we see in the descriptions given in the 
Mann and the Mahahhdratat how the frontiers of i/rrtAinoPflrta grow sikw* 
sivcly wiiltT and wider. The two great royal dynasties of ancient Mis, tk 
Solar and the Lunar race, the heroes of which are celebrated in the t»® 
epic j)ot'inH the Hainayana and Mahabharata, were settled in Ayodhya uJ 
PraluhtfidnOt that is In the country tributary to the holy river Gango- 
wliich is mentioned but occasionally in the Veda; and finally, Brahmi- 
varta is bounded on the west and the east, not by the rivers Drisbadvaci 
and Sarnsvati, but by the ocean ; and on the north and sooth by the raounlaiM 
of th« Ilimulayu and Vindhya, 
The Arinn tribes however remained united by their common origin,^ 
the ties of religion and of their sacred language. It is a curjous faw 
the ancient name given to this language by the BraliminJi themselvet ■ 
clihandas, which means rhythmical language, chhnnJns being derived from it 
root cfi/uind, to iJrtiise, which correei>onds to the Latin scandcre, as Sinw*| 
chhid, to cut, to die l.atin ncindcre. The primitive form of this Indo-GeniJ*^ 
root is in Sanscrit also s/cand, meaning to go, to stride, so that 
would originally signify either poetry accompanied by dance, taken in l« 
ancient Pindaric sense, or any poetical eli'usion, as if striding along in grt** 
and m(\jestic measures. 
It is very likely that the name of the sacred language of tlie old Mediaw 
and Pcrsi.ans, ihu Xend, tor which no satisfactory etymology has yet bwii 
found, has the s.^mc origin and meaning, a fact whicli would be in 
ancp not only with many peculiarities of the Vedic language, wliicl',|‘** 
viaiiiig from the classical Sanscrit, are frequently to be traced in . 
also with the general features of the religion of these two peopk’, 
clearly point to a coiuinon source. 
Bui altliough the Arian conquerors seem to have crushed and 
guished the great mass of the aboriginal inhabitants in the north of h'd*- 
yet some of these AutochthoncB, or early inliabitants of India, who 
considered by the Brahmins as impure and unworthy to partake of 
religious sacrifices, found a refuge in the thick forests of the mounia'nou* 
districts, and in the countries south of the Vindhya range, while h'* 
unlikely that some of them wen; tolerated by the Bralimins, so as to reBW»| 
in a slate of slavery, constituting tho class of Sudras, to wJiom, though tie; 
considered as twice-born, like the three other classes, sotne ^ 
civil rights were conceded, and to whom in latter days even a Brahauni 
origin was attributed. 
Now, 1 think it is very easy to understand how it came to pass, 
oaitscrit as well as in the modern dialects spoken in the north of InihS' * 
find a great many words, eajiecially those expressive of the common 
tions of life, and denoting objects with which men in an imperfect sW*'-’ 
civilisation are acquainted, which cannot be derived from Sanscrit roo^ 
and which are the same in the languages of the north, in the langurs® 
some forest tribes living In the mountainous boundary districts, and m 
iangimges of the people in the south of India. In the same way we bruiw 
1 1 nculty in accounting for the presence of many Sanscrit words in th® 
guagos of the south, for it is quite clear tliat it is owing to the UteroO 
nueiifo winch the Sanscrit exercised in the north as well as in the soi^ 
Words expressing ideas, connected with a higher state of civilw^^ 
