156 S. C. Yidyabhusana— Vratya and Samlcara Theories of Caste. [No. 2, 
well known to the ancient Hindus. In the Yedic literature mention has 
been made of countries that lay even far off from Samarkand and Merv. 
In the Rigveda (7—18—19) we find mention of Yaksu, which is probably 
identical with the Oxus. In 10—34—1 of the Rigveda mention has 
been made of the mountain called Mujavat, where Soma plants grew 
abundantly and at the foot of which lay (according to the Matsys- 
purana, chap. 120—19) the lake called Sailoda, from which sprang the 
river also called Sailoda. This river is the same as Silis marked on 
geographical maps as Jaxartes (ukert Geographie der Griechen and 
Romer, vol. iii, 21, p. 238), which falls into the sea of Aral. In the 
Ramayana * we find that the people called Uttara-Kuru lived on both 
banks of the river Sailoda. The Uttra-Kurus, mentioned by Ptolemy 
as Ottorokorrlrai in Eastern Turkestan, have been described in the 
Aitareya-Brahmana of the Rigvedaf thus :— 
“ In the north, on the other side of the Himalayas, there are the 
countries called Uttara-Kuru and Uttava-Madra. The people living 
there use ablution for attaining Brahmahood. The people who make 
religious bathing in this way are called Yiraj.” 
In the above we have found that the rivers Oxus and Jaxartes, which 
flowed respectively through the southern and northern extremities of 
Sogdiana (Qaka-dvipa), were actually mentioned in the Rigveda—the 
oldest document of the Hindus. While frequent mentions have been 
made in the Yedic literature of the people who performed sacrifices, etc., 
round the Caspian Sea and Sogdiana, we do not there come across a 
single passage making even the slightest allusion to the people of 
southern or middle India. It is an undeniable fact that the forefathers 
of the Brahmanas came from the North-West, settled themselves in 
Brahmavarta (the Punjab), and gradually migrated towards the south. 
I therefore would conclude that the faka-dvipi Brahmans are the 
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