ing the successive stages of the Aryan migration showing the people leaving their original habitat, descending downwards through the Caucasus, crossing the Elburz range, entering eastern Iran or modern Afghanistan, passing the Hindukush and terminating their peregrinations in Sapta Sindhu. But the text may be taken as recording historico-geographical reminiscence on the part of the writers of the south-eastward migration of the Aryan race.
Of the various sections of the Aryan family, the ancestors of those that later became known in history as the Indians and the Iranians lived longest and closest together in eastern Iran. They sacrificed to the same gods and entertained the same view of life upon earth. They separated at a later period and a group turned towards the south, crossed the Hindukush and entered the Panjaub by about 2000 b.c.
The great Aryan family thus dispersed during several generations and the members sought out for themselves new settlements in Asia and Europe. Of the various groups that separated from the main stock at different times, the Iranian group preserved most faithfully the original name of the primeval home of the Aryans. The place of residence had changed, the surroundings had altered beyond recognition, and the communities that lived and shared life with them had gone. But the deeply cherished name Airyana-vaejah had been indelibly imprinted on their minds. The veneration for the stem-land lived, the memory of its paradisaic condition still lingered, the auspicious name Airyana-vaejah continued still to be passionately loved, and the Iranians resolved that their latest settlement should be known for ever by no other name than Airyana-vaejah of happy memory.
