Similarly says Dr Berriedale Keith : "The Religion of the Ŗgveda is therefore the product of Aryas, who must have been affected considerably by their new environment and whose blood must have been becoming more and more intermingled by intermarriage."²⁴ Side by side with this religious influence of the Dravidians, all other cultural elements were little by little being introduced among the Aryas. "To give a brief résumé," says Prof. Suniti Kumar Chatterji, "the ideas of karma and transmigration, the practice of yoga, the religious and philosophical ideas centering round the conception of the divinity as śiva and Devī and as Viṣṇu, the Hindu ritual of pūjā as opposed to the Vedic ritual of homa,-all these and much more in Hindu religion and thought would appear to be non-Aryan in origin; a great deal of Purāṇic and Epic myth, legend and semi-history is pre-Aryan; much of our material culture and social and other usages-e.g., the cultivation of some of our most important plants like rice, and some vegetables and fruits like the tamarind and the cocoanut, etc., the use of the betel-leaf in Hindu life and Hindu ritual, most of our popular religion, most of our folk crafts, our nautical crafts, our distinctive Hindu dress (the dhotī and the sāri), our marriage ritual in some parts of India with the use of the vermilion and turmeric-and many other things-could appear to be a legacy from our pre-Aryan ancestors."²⁵

The Dravidian influence in the field of Sanskrit literature (we do not speak here of Sanskrit language) is every day clearer. We are of opinion that many passages at least which we now read in Sanskrit works from Vedic literature down to Purāṇic works, are mere translations from ancient Dravidian works now lost. I expresed this view concerning the story of the Pāṇḍavas as found in the Mahābhārata, in an article contributed to the Journal of Indian History, Madras.²⁶ A few days after the publication of this article, unexpectedly I received a letter from the late Dr. V. S. Sukthankar, in which that great scholar wrote:

"You are very likely right in saying that the story of Yudhiṣṭhira and enthronement dates from a period prior to the Ŗgveda and to

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²⁴Keith, The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads, I, p. 12. The low state of culture of the Aryas before their invasion into India might have contributed a great deal to the final acceptance of an easy amalgamation with the culture of the Dravidians. It has been suggested long ago that "prior to their migration into India, the Aryas of that era were probably of a somewhat similar stage of culture to the Todas.'' Marshall, A Phrenologist among the Todas p. 126.

²⁵Chatterji, op. cit., pp. 31-32.

²⁶Cf. Heras, "Were the Mohenjo-Darians Aryans or Dravidians?" J.I.H., XXI, p. 32.