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Book No. – 19 (Ancient History)
Book Name – Aryanisation of India (Nripendra Kumar Dutt)
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1. In the Punjab
2. In the Madhyadesh
3. In Eastern India
4. In the Deccan
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Nature of Aryan Colonisation
Chapter – 5
In the Punjab
The first wave of Indo-Aryan entry into India is described as a large tribal migration from the side of Afghanistan rather than a small military invasion.
These groups are said to have entered Punjab with their women, children, and cattle, indicating permanent settlement.
On arrival, they began intense warfare with the native inhabitants, compared by the author to the Anglo-Saxon conquest of south-eastern Britain.
Their advantages included knowledge of stronger metals, use of the horse, and superior physical strength.
Despite these advantages, the native peoples are described as offering determined but unsuccessful resistance.
Rigvedic references are interpreted as memories of such struggles, including Indra destroying many dark foes and fire breaking enemy strongholds.
One hymn describes panic among black peoples fleeing from burning citadels, leaving their possessions behind.
Survivors of these conflicts are said to have retreated eastward and southward before the advancing Aryans.
This left the Punjab region comparatively cleared for Aryan occupation up to modern Sirhind, where the Indus plain meets the Gangetic plain.
This stage is presented as the first phase of Indo-Aryan colonisation in India.
Like the Anglo-Saxon comparison, the settlers are said to have mixed little with the local population during this early period.
The continued predominance of an Indo-Aryan physical type in Punjab is cited as evidence for limited early admixture.
Only a small number of Rigvedic hymns are thought to belong to this earliest stage of settlement.