to be a group of this precise number.  It would be far easier to select a group of seven conspicuous rivers, if anywhere, on the west of the Indus.  A very natural group from the Iranian side would be the Her[=i]r[=u]d, Hilmund, Arghand[=a]b, Kurum, Kabul, Indus, and Vitast[=a].  Against this, however, can be urged that the term ‘seven rivers’ may be Bactrian, older than the Vedic period; and that, in particular, the Avesta distinguishes Vaikerta, Urva, and other districts from the ‘seven rivers.’  It is best to remain uncertain in so doubtful a matter, bearing in mind that even Kurukshetra, the ‘holy land,’ is said to-day to be watered by ‘seven streams,’ although some say nine; apropos of which fact Cunningham remarks, giving modern examples, that “the Hindus invariably assign seven branches to all their rivers."[16]

Within the Punj[=a]b, the Vedic Aryans, now at last really ‘Hindus,’ having extended themselves to the Cutudri (Catadru, Sutlej), a formidable barrier, and eventually having crossed even this, the last tributary’s of the Indus, descended to the jumna (Yamun[=a]), over the little stream called ‘the Rocky’ (Drishadvat[=i]) and the lesser Sarasvat[=i], southeast from Lahore and near Delhi, in the region Kurukshetra, afterwards famed as the seat of the great epic war, and always regarded as holy in the highest degree.

Not till the time of the Atharva Veda do the Aryans appear as far east as Benares (V[=a]r[=a]nas[=i], on the ’Varan[=a]vat[=i]’), though the Sarayu is mentioned in the Rik.  But this scarcely is the tributary of the Ganges, Gogra, for the name seems to refer to a more western stream, since it is associated with the Gomat[=i] (Gomal).  One may surmise that in the time of the Rig Veda the Aryans knew only by name the country east of Lucknow.  It is in the Punj[=a]b and a little to the west and east of it (how far it is impossible to state with accuracy) where lies the real theatre of activity of the Rig Vedic people.

Some scholars believe that this people had already heard of the two oceans.  This point again is doubtful in the extreme.  No descriptions imply a knowledge of ocean, and the word for ocean means merely a ‘confluence’ of waters, or in general a great oceanic body of water like the air.  As the Indus is too wide to be seen across, the name may apply in most cases to this river.  An allusion to ’eastern and western floods,’[17] which is held by some to be conclusive evidence for a knowledge of the two seas, is taken by others to apply to the air-oceans.  The expression may apply simply to rivers, for it is said that the Vip[=a]c and Cutudr[=i] empty into the ‘ocean’, i.e., the Indus or the Cutudr[=i]’s continuation.[18] One late verse alone speaks of the Sarasvat[=i] pouring into the ocean, and this would indicate the Arabian Sea.[19] Whether the Bay of Bengal was known, even by hearsay and in the latest time of this period, remains uncertain.  As a body the Aryans of the Rig Veda