DDK HistoryF.p65 - CSIR

20 CONTINUOUS ACCULTURATION [2.2
huge boulder 26 miles out of Bangalore by the side of the road to
Mysore contains large bars of iron, and was indubitably of ceremonial
importance. It seems to me that prehistoric caves might be of less
importance in India than in Europe, or even Iran and Afghanistan,
though the discovery of an Indian Chou-kou-tien is always possible.
The ice age here had less effect than further north. Reptiles, insects,
vermin and wild animals would reduce the usefulness of a cave except
during the rains. Grottos about Pachmarhi still await the
application of a modern technique, while those investigated in northern
Mirzapore show only a thin occupation layer compatible with seasonal
use. There is good reason to believe that many natural caves have been
enlarged in historical times to make monasteries or cave temples.
2.2. It is still not possible to establish a general sequence of
development from the stone age down in the most densely settled areas,
namely the Punjab, the Gangetic basin, the coastal strip of the
peninsula. It will be shown late- on that there were notable intrusions in
each of these regions. Yet India shows extraordinary continuity of culture.
Hie violent. breaks known to have occurred in the political and theological
superstructure have not prevented long survival of observances that
have no sanction in the official Brahmin works, hence can only
have originated in the most primitive savages of human society ;
moreover, the Hindu scriptures and even more the observances sanctified
in practice by brahminism, show adoption of non-brahmin local rites.
That is, the process of assimilation was mutual, a peculiar
characteristic of India. This has generally been completely neglected
by those who take Sanskrit liturgical books as the basis of their
study, creating a fictitious line of pseudo-historical descent from
antiquity to modern times on the basis of such written works alone. In
this “reasoning,” it is ignored that the greater part of the population pays
little attention to what the upper classes and their brahmin priests take
as the ‘ pure’ observances.
The casual use of stone tools does not necessarily imply a classless
society, particularly in a country of enduring survivals like India. Stone
axes were used by a few Saxons in the battle of Hastings. The
great pre-conquest monuments of Mexico, Guatemala, Peru were