ABSTRACT
D DRING the obscure period of the first ages, about fifteen centuries before the Christian era, it happened that
a tribe crossed the boundaries of Aria, the mother country of the Indo-European family, and directed its way towards the South. It passed the Himalayas, and after crushing by its moral and intellectual superiority the Dasyus, the aboriginal inhabitants, it formed in the Sapta Sindhu the germs of the Indian nation. This tribe has left us no history of its own ; but it has bequeathed to us its songs and 'its epic poems, which are the oldest monuments of our race and the souvenirs of our origin; and from these sources, made known to us by many admirable works of the present day, our modern literature will no doubt renew its youth.
