C., between the Hittites
and the king of the Aryans. The names of the deities which are
mentioned in the treaties seem to show that the Persian and
Indian branches of the Aryan race were not yet separated, but
formed a united kingdom on the banks of the Euphrates. They seem
to have come from Bactria (and possibly beyond), and introduced
the horse (hitherto unknown to the Babylonians) about 1800 B.C.
It is surmised by the experts that the Indian and Persian
branches separated soon after 1300 B.C., possibly on account of
religious quarrels, and the Sanscrit-speaking branch, with its
Vedic hymns and its Hinduism, wandered eastward and northward
until it discovered and took possession of the Indian peninsula.
The long isolation of India, since the cessation of its commerce
with Rome until modern times, explains the later stagnation of
its civilisation.
Thus the supposed "non-progressiveness" of the east, after once
establishing civilisation, turns out to be a question of
geography and history. We have now to see if the same
intelligible principles will throw light on the "progressiveness"
of the western branch of the Aryan race, and on the course of
western civilisation generally.
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