Soon after the opening of the second millennium B. C. and perhaps even earlier, the first Nordics crossed over the Afghan passes, entered the plains of India and organized a state in the Punjab, “the land of the five rivers,” bringing with them Aryan speech to a population probably of Mediterranean type and represented to-day by the Dravidians. The Nordic Sacæ arrived later in India and introduced the Vedas, religious poems, which were at first transmitted orally but which were reduced to written form in Old Sanskrit by the Brahmans at the comparatively late date of 300 A. D. From this classic Sanskrit are derived all the modern Aryan languages of Hindustan, as well as the Singalese of Ceylon and the chief dialects of Assam. There is great diversity among scholars as to the date of the first entry of these Aryan-speaking tribes into the Punjab but the consensus of opinion seems to indicate a period between 1600 and 1700 B. C. or even somewhat earlier. However, the very close affinity of Sanskrit to the Old Persian of Darius and to the Zendavesta would strongly indicate that the final introduction of Aryan languages in the form of Sanskrit occurred at a much later time. The most recent tendency is to bring these dates somewhat forward. If close relationship between languages indicates correlation in time then the entry of the Sacæ into India would appear to have been nearly simultaneous with the crossing of the Caucasus by the Nordic Cimmerians and their Persian successors. The relationship between the Zendavesta and the Sanskrit Vedas is as near as that between High and Low German and consequently such close affinity prevents our thrusting back the date of the separation of the Persians and the Sacæ more than a few centuries. A simultaneous migration of nomad shepherds on both sides of the Caspian-Aral Sea would naturally occur in a general movement southward and such migrations may have taken place several times. In all probability these Nordic invasions occurred one after another for a thousand years or more, the later ones obscuring and blurring the memory of their predecessors. When shepherd tribes leave their grasslands and attack their agricultural neighbors, the reason is nearly always a famine due to prolonged drought and causes such as these have again and again in history put the nomad tribes in motion over large areas. During many centuries fresh tribes composed of Nordics or under the leadership of Nordics but all Aryan-speaking, poured over the Afghan passes from the northwest and pushed before them the earlier arrivals. Clear traces of these successive floods of conquerors are to be found in the Vedas themselves. The Zendic form of the Iranian group of Aryan languages was spoken by those Sacæ who remained in old Bactria and from it is derived a whole group of closely related dialects still used in the Pamirs of which Ghalcha is the best known.