DDK HistoryF.p65 - CSIR

6.2] CONTEMPORARY GANGETIC TRIBES 149
distinct sets of social groups in various stages of development. Bengal
was covered by a dense, swampy forest. Considerable patches of
Bihar and U.P. were still thinly inhabited by tribesmen who did not
speak an Aryan language, and had little direct contact with the
Aryans. Above them were developed tribes normally in conflict with
Aryans. They still retained their own languages. These higher non-Aryans
may be grouped under the generic name Nagas. Both sets of tribesmen
were scattered throughout the region not settled by food-producers.
The stage above the Nagas was that of Aryan tribesmen settled along
the river and land trade-routes. Each of these tribes spoke an Aryan
language, and many had differentiated into caste-classes. These Aryans
were thus divided into two main groups, of which the simpler had not
been permeated by brahmin ritual. The Aryan tribesmen constituted an
oligarchy which exploited 6udra helots. It is not clear from the
names of tribes and individuals whether a particular Aryan tribe had a
recent non-Aryan past. That some had taken to a new (Aryan)
language and to food-production with cattle and the plough seems clear.
The argument is that these tribes find no mention in the vedas, or
Brahmanas; nor did any of them seem to follow vedic ritual. The
remaining, brahminised tribes had gone far towards dissolution, because
of their internal four-caste division into classes whereof the vai£ya was
subject to nearly as much oppression as the sudra. The chiefs of such
four-caste tribes had virtually absolute power, used for aggression.
Though tied together by indispensable trade, these varied communities
were never at peace. Even the Aryan kingdoms fought incessantly among
themselves.
Force, with one dominant group which reduced all the rest to
slavery, would not have solved the contradictions. There was neither
enough surplus nor enough commodity production for extensive slavery
to be profitable. The territory was still thinly settled over long distances
in difficult country. There was plenty of room for retreat of the tribesmen
as well as for expansion of plough-cultivation, in contrast to the limited
useful terrain in Greece or Italy.
The Amgitttara-Nikdya 1 speaks by name of sixteen great tribal
people’s territories (maha-janapada) traditional from about the 7th