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Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s6: F. Hill Tribes

Indische Paläographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s6

Language
German

Contents

F. Hill Tribes

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again of the incorporation of communities, wholly or in part, into the Brāhmanic social system, showing the extent to which that system and the racial constitution of the population at large is permeated from top to bottom by the Dasyu element. It becomes necessary therefore, to give some consideration to the remnants of these primitive communities which have, so far, more or less escaped absorption, and have preserved in a modified but still distinguishable, shape their independent tribal existence. It is obvious that in the present day the chief interest of these tribes is found, ethnographically speaking, in their constitution, customs and beliefs. Into these subjects it is impossible to enter in the detail they merit in a review of this description. It is also unnecessary, as they have been treated for the most part by experts, in works devoted to such investigation, and the rest are still the subject of inquiry in similarly competent hands. All that is here attempted is a cursory sketch of the position, strength and geographical distribution of the more representative of these bodies, in order that their place in the Indian Kosmos may be duly appreciated.

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It is convenient to treat of these tribes according to the tracts which they inhabit. The most important of these, in both extent and ethnographical interest, is what has been called in this work, the Central Belt. It comprises the great plateau of Cūtiā Nāgpur, with an extension to the north across the Santāl Parganās to the Ganges at Rājmahāl. Southwards, it follows the ranges which separate Orissa from the eastern parts of the Central Provinces, skirting the plain of Chattīsgaṛh, and continuing south as far as the lower Godāvari. Westwards from Cūtiā Nagpur, the hill country passes along the south of Shāhabād and Mirzāpur, along the Kaimūr range and the Vindhya, to Mēvār and the Aravalli. Almost parallel, to the south of the Narbadā, are the Māhādev and Sātpura ranges of Bērār and Khandēsh, ending in the forests of east Gujarāt. Contiguous to this western abutment of the Belt, is the line of the Sahyādri, or Western Ghāṭs, which, about as far as the little State of Bhōr, is inhabited by a few small tribes of the same character as those further east, and probably allied to them in race. Then there occurs a gap in the series, as the south Dekkan is cultivated almost up to the edge of the Ghāṭs; and the next locality in which the more primitive tribes are found is the Nilgiri, with their detached continuation separating Travancore from the east coast. The above tracts are the present homes of the remains of the Kōl and Dravidian tribes. The hill communities of Mongoloidic race are found chiefly in the ranges separating Assam from Upper Burma, and in the dorsal range of Assam itself, made up of the Gāro, Khāsia, Jaintyā, Nāgā and Mikir hills, between the Brahmaputra valley and the Deltaic plain. The remaining group inhabit the Himālayan southern ranges, and, being chiefly resident in Nepāl and Bhutān, countries beyond the census limits, come but slightly within the scope of this review.

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**§ 81.** (a) **Central Belt** (9,221,900). The tribes of this tract may be taken first, not only because they form the largest division, but also by reason of their more intimate racial connection with the masses of the plains. Each differs from the rest in some important respects with regard to organisation, customs and beliefs, but there are a few characteristics general throughout the whole. All but three or four of the larger tribes believe themselves to be autochthonous, if not to the tract they now inhabit, at least to one within a comparatively short distance. All the larger tribes, again, have traditions of dominion over a much larger tract than their present one, and in most cases the statement is supported by evidence such as that of ruins, names of places and castes and by identical forms and objects of worship. In every large tribe, again, there are sections which are far more Brāhmanised than the rest, usually with the tendency to separate under a different title, the latter being borrowed from an orthodox community of the plains. Most of the tribes are much subdivided into exogamous divisions, totemistic as a rule; endogamous sections following later, after contact with Brāhmanical castes. Where the tribe is free from such outside influences it employs priests belonging to its own or a neighbouring community, and in several cases the more important sacrifices are performable in the archaic fashion by the head of the family only.

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The usual form of religion is that of the worship of nature or spirits, with the accompaniment of spells, witchcraft and exorcism generally. Among the more Brāhmanised tribes there is the outward acceptance of some manifestation or other of a member of the Purānic pantheon, but from the practical side of devotion and propitiation, the belief in the efficacy of the older system remains unshaken; and it is worth noting that the older the tribe in the locality the higher the reputation of the priests it furnishes. In regard to occupation, the greater part of this population lives by cultivation, a few tribes on the plateau of Cūtiā Nāgpur having attained to a fair degree of skill in their calling, and making use of the plough. The bulk, however, still pursue the primitive and wasteful system of clearing a patch of jungle, burning the vegetation thereof for manure, and raising two or three years’ harvest off it. They then leave it fallow for some years, moving off meanwhile to another patch. Where this is the practice, the village is migratory, within a certain range, or consists merely of detached hamlets; but in the more open country, cultivation being permanent, the village site is so too, and the huts or houses are built more solidly. In a few of the wilder tribes the whole village is apt to flit when untoward events have proved the locality or its deities to be unpropitious.

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In all the large tribes there are sections which live almost entirely upon forest produce, and in some, where an autumn crop only is raised, the people rely during the hot weather entirely upon what the jungle contains. Some communities, again, make it their regular trade to collect lac, tussar-cocoons, berries and other produce for sale to agents from the towns, whilst others habitually work in cane or make tooth-sticks and brushes, smelt iron, or wash the river sands for its minute yield of gold. At the other end of the scale are found in several tribes landed proprietors of considerable wealth, who have long passed out of the tribal into the caste stage, and who, in the case of petty Chieftains, marry into respectable Rājput families — at a distance. Great advantage has been taken by others of the opportunities of earning good wages on the tea-gardens of Dārjiling, the Tarāi and Assam, where they bear an excellent character for industry and docility. The heart of the jungle, however, has hitherto proved almost impervious to the efforts made to improve the inhabitants by land grants or other means of inducement to them to work themselves into a higher material condition. On the outskirts it is different, and there, as before remarked, the tribal population is breaking away from its traditions, and becoming merged gradually into the conditions of the plains.

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§ 82. It was pointed out in the introduction that whilst in physical characteristics and general customs these tribes appear homogeneous,

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in speech they fall into two different categories, the Kōl and the Dravidian. In the case of most of the southern tribes this distinction is obviously attributable to the contiguity of the Āndhra or Telugu population of which they form the northern fringe. As regards the detached communities further north, however, there are traditions of immigration, and it is remarkable to find tribes like the Orāon, of the south of Cūtiā Nāgpur, and the Mal-Pahāṟiyā and their neighbours of the hills bordering the Ganges speaking tongues which support their assertion that they reached their present localities from a tract as far distant as the Karnatic, especially when to do so they must apparently have outflanked the Gōṇḍ, a still more powerful tribe, which itself is said to have come from the same home. It must be noted that the Mālē, or northern section of the inhabitants of the Rājmahāl hills, are also called Sāvariyā, or Sābar, a title which appears to link them to the Savara, or Suari, of the ancient European geographers, Pliny and Ptolemy. These were once undoubtedly in possession of a considerable territory south of the Ganges, but now the only large tribe known by their special designation except the Brahmanised Sahariyā, mentioned above, is located far to the south, and isolated amongst a population speaking either Oṛiyā or the hill-vernaculars of the Dravidian type. On linguistic grounds, the Savara of today are grouped amongst the Kōl-Khervāri peoples, whereas the Mālē use a tongue nearly akin to that of the Orāon. It is possible, therefore, that an ancient and wide-spread title has been applied to two different and distinct communities, and that the southern Savara like their neighbours, the Gadabā, are Dravidian by race, modified by the influence of more powerful alien surroundings. Thus, it may be generally put that the Dravidian element is indigenous in the south-east, immigrant in the south, centre and a portion of the north-east; and that the north, west, and most of the plateau, appertain to the Kōl-Khervāri tribes.

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In regard to the latter, it must be noted that the generic designation of Kōl is not returned as the title of a tribe except in the Central Provinces, Central India, and the south of the Ganges valley. Towards the east of the tract in question, the terms used are Hō, Muṇḍā and Bhūmij. Of these, Hō is held to mean Man, the name given to themselves by most primitive tribes. Kōl is probably derived from Hō by transliteration. Muṇḍā and Bhūmij are terms of Sanskrit origin, the former meaning a headman of a village, also a common appellation for the lower races in India, and in this case adopted by the tribe itself. Bhūmij, in the same way, implies connection with the soil, and connotes in most cases in which it is applied the clearers of the village-site. In various forms it is found from Gujarāt to Assam. Occasionally it means the hereditary landholders of the village; elsewhere, the menials and guardians of the boundaries. In the form of Bhūinyā, in Bengal, it is both a generic title, covering a considerable number of castes of different standing and origin, and also the name of a loose and scattered tribe in the south-eastern part of the Belt. The tribe to which the name of Bhūmij is now given is a branch of the Muṇḍā which has spread from the central home of the race to the eastwards, and now lives in western Bengal and the districts of Mān国土and Singhbhūm.

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The community is almost entirely Brāhmanised, except in the tracts immediately adjoining the plateau, where the Muṇḍā language is still current, and the people intermarry with the Muṇḍā of the uplands, and often call themselves by their name. As the tribe advanced into the plain all this was changed. The tribal worship was abandoned by the landholding class in favour of Brāhmanism of a somewhat strict type, and the Āryan vernacular of the district is used by them. In the wealthier families the practice is growing of calling themselves Rājputs and dropping their ancestral connection altogether. The less advanced adhere to their tribal gods and employ their own Lāya, or priests, on all occasions. The Muṇḍā are subdivided into numerous tribes, the names of most of which prove an origin from intermarriage with other tribes of the vicinity. These, again, are further parcelled out respectively into totemistic sections, of course exogamous, and with interesting rules as to prohibited food. The chief object of worship is the Sun, as is the case with most of the larger tribes of this tract, but a more efficient and active deity is found in the Mountain god, again a not uncommon feature of the Kōl race. The priests, or Pāhan, are members of the tribe. The Hō, sometimes called the Larkha Kōl, are probably the oldest, as they are the highest, of the three cognate tribes.

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The Santāl, Bhūmij and the Muṇḍā call themselves Hō, but no one else does, and intermarriage between them and the Hō of Singbhūm is now unusual. The latter are of Cūtiā Nāgpur, like the others, but having got possession of a more fertile region, they have taken the greatest care to prevent strangers from sharing the land with them. Physically, they are the finest of the race, and have become a steady agricultural community of a somewhat undeveloped type. The tribes returning themselves as Kōl are found for the most part in the Mirzāpur district along the Ganges, in Jabalpur and Māndla in the Central Provinces, and in the Baghelkhaṇḍ tract of Central India. They have the tradition of having once lived in the plains of south Bihār from which they were expelled by Savara of some sort, and had to take refuge in Baghelkhaṇḍ. In all the above tracts the tribe is comparatively Brāhmanised and has lost much of the organisation and worship it has retained in Cūtiā Nāgpur, where the Kōl is a branch of the Muṇḍā. Here they live after the fashion of their ancestors, but in the rest of their settlements they have taken to simple cultivation on the ordinary lines, and differ but little from their Brāhmanic neighbours except in more extended respect for sorcery, and in the propitiation of the local gods in preference to those of wider fame.

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One of the most civilised tribes of this group is the Kharvār, to which belong more than one of the local Chiefs who have been accepted as equals by Rājputs, on payment, however, of unusually heavy dowries. The Kharvār appear to be without traditions of immigration from further than the south east of the Cutiā Nāgpur table-land, from which they spread northwards and down into south Bihār. Here their rank seems to depend much upon their connection with the land. Those who hold large estates claim to be Rājputs, and the middle classes employ S'akadvīpī Brāhmans and retain only the more important of their tribal ceremonies. Even amongst these classes the influence of the Baigā, or tribal priest, is by no means extinct. Indeed, the reputation of the tribe for supernatural powers is such that a section bears the name of Baigā, and is so returned in the Central Provinces and Baghelkhaṇḍ, from which it may be inferred that the Kharvār is regarded by its neighbours in that direction as being of an older stock than themselves. On the other hand, sections of the Kharvār now employ a priest of the Korvā, or even a lower tribe. The respect shown by the Kharvār for the Khar grass, which they say they take their name, seems to indicate that they were once a totemistic branch of a larger community, but no traces of this have been ascertained, and the tribe holds itself to be superior to all around it, except, perhaps the Cēru.

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The latter are even more thoroughly Brāhmanised than the Kharvār, and have the same tradition of having been ousted from dominion in the south of Bihār. They were the last to leave the plain for the plateau, and are accepted as an orthodox Brāhmanic caste. A small section, however, in the interior, still keeps to the jungle and breeds tussar moths, for doing which they are deemed impure by their relatives. Long periods of settled life, combined with frequent intermarriage with high class families of Rājputs and others, have in fact made the larger body of the Cēru a different and distinct community, claiming the name of Cōhān-bansi. The totemistic subdivisions of their poor relations, however, prove their connection with both the general Muṇḍā race and perhaps more especially, with the Khariā. These last say they came up to Mānbhūm and Rānci from the Orissa State of Mayurbhanj. One branch took to cultivation and settled life, whilst those in Mānbhūm remain amongst the most shy and uncivilised of their kind. The former affect the highest regard for purity in diet, and greatly restrict their intercourse with outsiders, a habit which is sometimes unkindly attributed to their own filth and disregard of social decency. They intermarry with the Muṇḍā on unequal terms, the larger tribe taking brides from them but giving none in return. The Khariā keep to their own worship, using Muṇḍā or Orāon priests.

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The jungle section live on the produce of the forest with a little simple cultivation of the migratory sort. When any stranger settles within sight, they move off, a tendency welcomed by their neighbours, who regard them as the possessors of exceptional powers of magic, available against both man and beast. The largest of the Kōl communities is the Santāl, who call themselves, like the Muṇḍā, by a term signifying Headman of a village (Mānjhi). The tribe is not autochthonous in its present locality, though their immigration does not seem to have been from a greater distance than the south-east of the Cūtiā Nāgpur plateau. From thence they spread eastwards and northwards in succession, and peopled the Santāl Parganās about the middle of the 19th century. This eastward movement is still in progress, and the Sant marrying off their girls at a very early age. This practice is common enough amongst the aspiring families of the lower classes, but the remarkable feature in the new departure among the Santāls is that after a few years’ trial the practice was abandoned and the tribal custom of marriage in the teens was resumed.

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There have been a good many converts to Christianity from the tribe of late years, and, indeed, most of the information available about the language and religion of the tribe is derived from Danish and other Missionaries working amongst them: In their own worship and in the periodical great sacrifices the Santāl relies upon the Naiki, or priest of his own community. Akin to the Santāl is a small tribe called Māhilī, which, judging from the names of its subdivisions, must have split off from the main body on taking to work, such as carrying loads and making baskets, deemed degrading by the Santāl. It seems, too, that the Muṇḍā contributed a section to the Māhilī. The latter are now found chiefly in Mānbhūm and the Rānci district of the plateau, with a few scattered amongst their kinsfolk elsewhere. Their religion has been described as a mixture of “Animism half-forgotten and Brāhmanism half-understood”. Sacrifices are offered to the god of the mountain and to the snake and then consumed by those who make the offering. One subdivision only has advanced well into the religion of the plains, and employs Brāhmans and abjures the food dear to the rest. The Binjhiā and Birjiā have usually been considered to be one tribe, but at the last Census it was considered better to tabulate them separately.

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This course appears to have been correct, as the larger community of the Binjhiā is a Brāhmanised cultivating caste, speaking Oṛiyā, and settled in the south of the Ranci district, whilst the Birjiā are residents of the uncleared forest, where they live from hand to mouth by the cultivation of small patches, eked out by hunting wild animals and collecting fruit etc. They are held to belong to the Ägariā, or iron-smelting tribe whose customs they follow. The Juāng, or Patuā, are perhaps the most primitive of all their group. They inhabit the recesses of the Orissa hills, and it is remarkable to find the caste amongst the indentured labourers in Assam. Both language and customs indicate their close relationship with the Khariā and Muṇḍā. They worship the forest and village gods, but are said to be acquiring some appreciation of Brāhmanic deities. They keep village priests, but the important offices are performed by the elders of the tribe. The latter, probably because it is so small, is not subdivided, but forms a single endogamous community. The practice of clothing themselves with leaves, which has been picturesquely described by Dalton and other visitors to their haunts, is said to be yielding to the taste for cotton wrappers, even amongst the women, who have hitherto alleged divine warrant for the leaf-apron.

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§ 83. Of the immigrant tribes of the plateau, the most important is the Orāon, or Kūrukh, which, as stated above, is apparently of Kanarese origin. According to the tribal tradition, the Orāon once held a good portion of South Bihār, and on being expelled by the Muslim, separated into two branches, one following the Ganges to the Rājmahāl jungle, the other going up the Sōn and occupying the north-west corner of Cūtiā Nāgpur. The main body are now settled in the latter tract, covering the districts of Rānci and Palāmau. As they are greatly in request as labourers they are also found in the Census returns of Assam and the Jalpaiguri tea districts in considerable numbers. Having dwelt side by side with the

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Muṇḍā for many generations, they have dropped a good many of their own customs and adopted those of the indigenous tribes. In regard to their worship, however, they keep themselves apart, erecting some symbol of their gods, whilst the Muṇḍā abstain from anything of the sort. The Orāon employ no Brāhmans of course, and their priests are Nāya, very like those of the Muṇḍā. According to tradition, the Orāon introduced the plough into the plateau and were the first to take to regular cultivation. They regard the Muṇḍā as their predecessors, however, and where the two are in the same place, the Orāon yield precedence to the elder tribe. The advance of settled government and systematic land administration has not conduced to the prosperity of the Orāon, who lose ground before the more cunning castes which follow those symptoms of civilisation, and prey upon the less educated, gradually dispossessing them of their lands. As to the other branch of the Orāon, who are still entrenched in the hills of Rājmahāl, it appears that two sections have been formed, one, of the Mal-Pahāṛiā, the lower and more Brāhmanised community, and the other, called, for want of a more definite title, the Mālē, or Hillmen. There seems to be little doubt but that in spite of the antagonism between the two in the present day they belong to the same race, using closely allied dialects of the Orāon-Kanarese language. The Southern community, though more civilised than the Northern, is still more or less in the jungle stage, and worships the Sun, Earth and Tiger, through the mediation of the headmen of the villages. One subdivision is considered by the outside world to be a trifle purer than the rest, as in the matter of diet it draws the line above rats and lizards, which enter into the daily meal of the others. They cultivate on the wasteful system of jungle-burning, which entails the occupation of an abnormally large tract of land to allow of the frequent fallows necessary for the recuperation of the vegetation. The Mālē of the upper hills, are far less affected by Brāhmanic contact than the others, and are said to be homogeneous to the extent of not having even exogamous subdivisions. They share with the Mal-Pahāṛiā the worship of the Sun, but differ from the latter in setting up a post to symbolise that luminary. The only semblance of a priest amongst them is the Demano or Diviner, and even he gives place to the headman at the more important ceremonies. The Mālē gave a good deal of trouble in the early days of British rule in Bengal, as they had managed to preserve their independence of all government against the attempts of the Muslim to coerce them. The judicious handling of them by a popular local official, late in the 18th century, pacified them into the abstention of raids upon their neighbours, but his attempts at inducing the tribe to take to industrial pursuits were not successful.

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§ 84. The largest and most widely spread of the tribes of the Central Belt is the Gōṇḍ, a title which like that of Kōl, has been extended to a number of almost distinct communities. Some authorities trace the name to Koṇḍa, the Telugu for hill, as in the case of the Kond or Kand tribe, and they certainly cover the hill-country from Orissa westwards, with a strong northern settlement in the Sātpura and the south-west of the Chūtiā Nāgpur plateau. It has been already pointed out that their language approximates to the Kanarese rather than to the adjacent Telugu, but there is little or no tradition of their earlier wanderings. The Rāj-Gōṇḍ, who pushed up the Narbadā and Kaimur, established a strong dominion on the ruins of the Gauli dynasties, though it seems that they were in the

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neighbourhood long before that opportunity occurred, and were being transformed into Nāgbansi Rājputs even by the 4th century. The zenith of their rule was from the 16th to the beginning of the 18th centuries, when the Bhonslē overran their country and completely dispossessed them of their power except in the hill fastnesses, which held out against all comers. From the Kaimur the Gōṇḍ passed eastwards into Baghelkhaṇḍ and the hills along the south of the Ganges valley. Here they are now known as Majhvār or Mānjhī, meaning headman, like Muṇḍā. In the Cūtiā Nāgpur States the Gōṇḍ hold their land on military tenure, a fact which seems to indicate that they were in possession before the present rulers. All the northern and central Gōṇḍ are more or less Brāhmanised. The upper classes, descendants of the former Chieftains, and the Chieftains still holding petty States, claim to be Rājputs, and have for generations intermarried with families of that order whose circumstances were in need of reinforcement from some landed class better off than themselves. Underlying the prevailing beliefs, however, are the old tribal worship and customs, and whilst Brāhmans are consulted as to lucky days and are brought in to perform social ceremonies, the efficacy of the local priest and exorciser, Pathārī, Pradhān or Ōjhā, in practical dealings with the supernatural, is everywhere acknowledged. In the south-east of the Gōṇḍ country, from Chattīsgaṛh to Orissa, the tribes are far less Brāhmanised, and live more in the forest. The Māriā form the principal section, and are found chiefly in the Bastar State and the district of Cānda. The majority of the Māriā are probably the wildest of the Gōṇḍ, but on the outskirts of the hills they are beginning, it is said to drop their designation for that of Kōitar, a more advanced section, and leading up to the title of Gōṇḍ, without any affix. The Kōyi are less civilised than the Kōitar, but the Bhatrā, or Bottadā, to the east of the Gōṇḍ tract, are nearly all Brāhmanised, some wearing the sacred thread, like the Rāj section of the Gōṇḍ. The Halabā, originally from the Bastar State, have settled to a considerable extent in the plain of Chattīsgaṛh, and the further they get from the jungle the more strenuously they disown connection with the Gōṇḍ, and claim to be an independent Brāhmanic caste. As their main occupation is the distillation of spirit from forest produce, their claim is not encouraged by the higher grades of the community to which they affiliate themselves. It is not possible to give the numerical strength of all these sections of the great Gōṇḍ tribe or race, as at the Census the use of the general title was very extensive. In 1891 some detail was given, but on that occasion also the value of the figures is diminished by the large number of unspecified entries.

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§ 85. Of the Dravidian tribes, next to the Gōṇḍ come the Kand, or Kond, with their kindred. The main body calls itself Kūyi, but the derivation of both this and the ordinary title is uncertain. The Kand have attracted a good deal of literary notice, partly due to their former practice of human sacrifices and supposed advanced religious views. But the community is much subdivided and by no means uniform in its structure or habits. There is, for instance, the usual division into the hill section, which is untouched by Brāhmanism, and that of the plains, which is adopting both the language and religion of the Oṛiyās and Telugu respectively. The Kand resemble the Gōṇḍ in having pushed up northwards from the southern outskirts of the ranges forming the abutment of the Central Belt to the south-east. A further point of resemblance is the adoption of the

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name of the dominant tribe by bodies of artisans and menials who minister to the former, so that, as in the case of the Nāyar but on a smaller scale, there are Gōṇḍ blacksmiths, drummers and cowherds, and Kand blacksmiths and potters. The tribe lives by agriculture of the usual rude kind, but all the Kand are also keen hunters, and very expert against game with their bow and hatchet. They are very tenacious of their tribal rights over the land they have once cleared, and in some cases, the whole of the village land is held in common. The Kondu-Dora, on the contrary, who are probably the southern branch of the same tribe, have lost hold of their hills and are no more than a Brāhmanic caste, speaking a mixture of their old language and Telugu, and conforming to the ordinary local customs. The Porojā, the meaning of whose title is uncertain, apparently belong to the same stock as the Kand, but their language is held by Dr. Grierson to be Gōṇḍ, at least where the two communities live alongside of each other. Elsewhere it is treated as a mixture of Kand and Oṛiyā. The tribe therefore, may be placed midway between the Gōṇḍ and the Kand. The Gadabā, again, are considered locally to be a branch of the Porojā, and their subdivisions confirm this view. They are said to have separate dialects of Oṛiyā, all mutually unintelligible to the rest. In the Linguistic Survey, however, the Gadabā language is classed with the Savara, as southern Kōl-Khervāri. The tribe has no tradition of migration, and lives by cultivation, one section working as carriers and labourers. Their headmen act as their priests, and bear the same title as among the Kand. The Jātapu are said to be Kand who have become in most respects Brāhmanised. Those residing in the hills speak Kand, but those on the plain have taken to Telugu. The Jātapu, whilst observing the orthodox rules as to marriage and diet, have never given up the old tribal gods, to whom they sacrifice animals through their own priests, and keep to their totemistic exogamous clans.

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§ 86. There remains the Savara tribe, of which the greater portion is now found in the Orissa hills and the adjacent wild country, under the Central Provinces and Madras. It has been already pointed out that assuming this tribe to represent the ancient Suari or Sabarae, they once possessed a considerable dominion in the south Ganges valley. It is curious to find even in the present day small communities bearing this name in the very north of the Central Provinces and Bundēlkhaṇḍ, with no traditions of migration or former supremacy. The alternative designation of the Mālē of Rājmahāl, Saurīā, has also been ascribed to some connection with the Savara. Be this as it may, the detached body of the north-west has lost all trace of its primitive religion and language, and is simply a low caste of the ordinary Brāhmanic type. Similarly, an offshoot of the main Savara body which has settled in western Bengal, is gradually detaching itself from the hill-dwellers of the tribe and employing Brāhmans. It is worthy of note that whereas the Savara in their native haunts seem to be without exogamous subdivisions, those who have left the hills establish them upon both totemistic and Brāhmanic lines, borrowing the former, probably, from some neighbouring tribe which preceded the Savara in the valley. The wilder Savara have functional classes, such as the agricultural, the metal-working, the weaving and the cane-working, but information is not yet available as to the social distinctions implied in this distribution. The Savara of the southern outskirts seem to be inclined to branch off from their hill-comrades as they have done on the Bengal side of the hills, and to gradually incorporate themselves with the Kāpu, or peasantry.

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§ 87. (b) **Western Belt** (1,922,300). The Western branch of the Kōl tribes of the Central Belt differs considerably from those just reviewed, owing, probably, to their having been driven into tracts which allow but little room for cultivation, even on the methods adopted by the inhabitants of the plateau. The link between the western tribes and the rest is found in the Kōrvā, a tribe Kōl in its language, and by repute one of the earliest settlers of the western parts of Cūtiā Nāgpur. The Kōrvā, under its western title of Kūr or Kōrkū, originated, it is said, in the Mahādēv Hills, and spread east and west. That they are amongst the oldest established tribes seems certain, for other tribes get their priests from them in all cases where village or local deities have to be appeased. The few of the tribe who have risen to the rank of landed proprietors affect Brāhmanism, and set up as Rājputs, but the rest of the community, except, perhaps, a few in the west, worship their ancestral ghosts and propitiate the malignant spirits of other people. In some of the States of Cūtiā Nāgpur, the Kōrvā smelts iron and makes his own weapons and implements, but this art is lost amongst those of the Sātpura, who have to have recourse to professionals for the large arrows which they use with considerable skill at short ranges. Towards Betūl and the Berār hills, the Kōrkū are divided into clans, the principal of which is called Muvāsī.

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Further to the west, this title is applied to the Bhīls of the same range, and there is doubtless some connection between the two. The Bhīl has lost his tribal language, and, except in the heart of the forest, much of his tribal religion. Like the rest of his race, however, he maintains his respect for the old pantheon as being more intimately and practically bound up with daily life than the Purānic manifestations, even though the latter be brought down to suit his requirements. The name of Bhīl is generally derived from a Dravidian word for bow, as in the case of the tree-tapping caste, Billava, in Kanara. Probably this name, or at all events its interpretation, is modern compared to the age of the community, but it certainly is applicable to the Bhīl of the present day, who in the forest, and even on the outskirts thereof, is seldom without his weapons.. In the west, the Bhīl tribes are divided, like the Kōl of further east, into a Hill and a Plain section. The latter, however, do not appear to aspire to more than a rudimentary form of village settlement by themselves or than the duties of watchmen in the larger villages of other castes. In the latter capacity, the permission to retain his arms proved too strong a temptation to be resisted when the institution was first established, and the Bhīl watchmen, with that marvellous power of rapid concentration which distinguishes the tribe, were wont to descend in force upon one of the villages exempt from their services.

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This phase soon passed, and the Bhīl is now a recognised part of the establishment in the eastern villages of Gujarāt. The Bhīl worships the wood-spirits, and in the west, at least, erects posts to them in the jungle, sacrificing fowls and other offerings through a priest, generally of the tribe, whose duty on other occasions is to discover the witches who seem to be peculiarly active in this community. Some of the eastern Bhīls have been converted to Islām, especially those of the Taḍvī clan, but their observance of its tenets are very half-hearted, and the women especially, keep to their former practices. In former days the Bhīls held a good part of the country north of their present hills, and were driven out by the Rājputs under pressure of the Muslim. Even now, they receive the respect due to their former repute, an instance of which was given above in connection with the enthronement of a Rājput Chief. There is strong reason to think that the tribe was reinforced by the incorporation of refugee Rājputs, who have left their mark upon certain clans of Bhīl, especially in the south of Rājputāna. In fact, the connection between the two is said to have resulted in the formation of the Bhilālā, now a separate tribe.

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In regard to the relationship of the Bhīl to the Kōrkū, it may be noted that the name of Mēvās, which is given to some of the Bhīl tracts in the west, is taken from the title of Muvāsī, or Māvacā, by which they are called, and which, as observed above, is the name of the western branch of the Kōrkū. Akin to the Bhīl are the Dhānkā, a tribe of south Rājputāna and Central India, the Patēliā in the same region, and probably of mixed origin, and the Taḍvi and Pāvaḍā, which are both Bhīl clans locally separated from the main body, and settled in the Khāndēsh Sātpura. The Gāmtā, or Gāmit, which nearly touch them on the north-west, seem to be merely a superior class of Bhīl, and not a separate tribe. The great Kōlī tribe, which has been classed with the cultivators, contains, also, more than one subdivision which still live in or near the forest, and have not taken, like the rest, to either agriculture or seafaring pursuits. The Naikaḍā is probably one of these, as it is distinct from the Bhīl, though sharing the tastes and mode of life of the latter. The Nāikaḍā are found along the south-west border of Rājputāna and Central India, with colonies in the forests of east Gujarāt. They are by repute even worse neighbours than the Bhīl, and on several occasions have only been kept down by force. For many years, however, they have been at peace, though showing no disposition to abandon their primitive cultivation and their dependence upon the jungle for their livelihood.

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The only advance they have made is to engage under the Forest officials to cut and transport timber, instead of working the jungle on their own wasteful plan. They pay homage to Mātā and Hanumān, as representing their own worship of nature and the forest, but not only repudiate the services of the Brāhman, but look upon the murder of one of that order as an act of merit, and have the grim saying, "By killing a caste-mark wearer, you feed a hundred." There is a small tribe of much the same name, but settled at some distance from the Nāikaḍā, called Nāyak, which is unconnected with the Kōlī, and seems to be the elder branch of the Dhūṇḍiā caste, mentioned in connection with agricultural labour. They are only found in the south-east of Gujarāt, where they live on the skirts of the forest, but not in it. The Dhūṇḍiā of the open country pay them respect at all formal ceremonies, but do not eat or intermarry with them. The Nāyak, moreover, have kept up a good many of the tribal customs which the others have sloughed off. Inter alia, they are terribly skilful and persistent on the local drum, an accomplishment much appreciated at weddings and other festivals. The Chōdrā of a little further north, are in appearance and customs much the same as the Dhūṇḍiā, but they have the tradition of having immigrated to their present home from the south of Rājputāna, whence they were expelled along with some Rājput clans, by the Muslim.

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They resemble the Dhūṇḍiā in having taken to regular cultivation, with the addition of cutting firewood from the forest for sale in the open country. Beyond their worship of the village boundary-gods and their avoidance of Brāhmans, there is little to distinguish them from a low caste of Brāhmanic cultivators, and they are said to be gradually rising in position through their industry and peaceful habits.

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§ 88. (c) **Sahyādri** (367,600). The three or four small tribes of the northern Sahyādri are almost contiguous to those just mentioned and possibly are connected with some of them, though they have no traditions as to their origin. The lowest of them, the Kāṭkarī or Kāthoḍī, which derives its name from the catechu it extracts in the forests, says it came from the north, by which it means the forests of south Gujarāt. The tribe resembles the lower class of Bhīl in appearance, but lacks the independence and joviality of the predatory communities. The Kāṭkarī stick close to the forests, and though they cultivate on a rude system, they never take up land on a permanent tenure. They have their own gods and forms of sacrifice, without reference to Brāhmans. The tiger is an object of special regard, as in Cūtiā Nāgpur. Other tribes steer clear of the Kāṭkarī, not only because the latter are foul-feeders and remarkably dirty, but also because of their reputation as sorcerers. It is worth noting that whilst the principal demon of the locality is worshipped by the other tribes it is reputed to be controlled by the Kāṭkarī, a difference implying the older settlement of the latter tribe. The Varlī (uplander), so called from being supposed to have come from the country above the Ghāṭs, are now resident along the coast, but still in the forest. They are superior in appearance to the Kāṭkarī, and are not adverse to permanent cultivation, generally as subtenants upon the half-share system. The bulk of the tribe also deal in jungle produce. They share some of the gods and ceremonies of the Kāṭkarī, with the addition of Vāghōbā, a tiger god recognised by the lower Brāhmanists. The latter, in turn, do not consider them as altogether impure and enter their houses, or, at least, those of the Vārlī who breed cattle. The third tribe, the Ṭhākūr, called for distinction, the Ghāṭ-Ṭhākūr, stands still higher in society, though except in being a little more cleanly, the members of it have a strong physical resemblance to the darker tribes of the north and east. They hold the same tribal beliefs, too, and worship the mountain and tiger gods, but in their domestic rites they make use of the Dēs'asth, or local Marāṭhā Brāhman. The Ṭhākūr are settled in their own villages and possess land and cattle, some of their community being fairly well-to-do. None of these three tribes strays beyond its native haunts.

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§ 89. (d) **Nilgiri etc.** (226,300). The comparatively small tribes of the Nilgiri and the vicinity consist of descendants of a fugitive branch of the Kuṟumban race and of communities the origin of which is uncertain. To the former belong the Kuṟuman of the western slopes, who are the same, except in locality, as the Kāḍu-Kuṟubar mentioned under the head of shepherds. The general conjecture is that after the downfall of the Shepherd dynasties of the south-east, some of the race fled into the jungle, where they have since remained. The Irula, who inhabit the broken country to the east of the Nilgiri, are apparently also of the same stock if not belonging to the Coromandel Cencu tribes. Like the Kuṟubar or Kuṟumban, they are divided into the section of the plain and that of the forest. The former are more or less Brāhmanised, live in villages and work on the land. The others have the name of Villiyan, evidently derived from the bow, their weapon of choice. Both sections worship the Kannimār at an ant-hill in the jungle, these goddesses being probably the earliest of all the Dravidian pantheon. The Toda and Kōta belong to the table-

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land of the Nīlgiri, on which they have been isolated from pre-historic time. Both apparently belong to the same stock, but the Kōta admit their inferiority to the others, though having turned out more adaptable to new circumstances they appear to be more prosperous. The Toda are essentially a pastoral community, their sole wealth consisting of their stock of buffaloes. Owing to their residing within an easy morning's walk of a popular hill-station, also the seat of Government for the greater part of the year, the tribe has received abundant notice, and has been to some extent cherished as a valuable asset, being a specimen of what may be called "stall-fed aborigines". There is some justification for this interest in the striking difference in physical appearance between the Toda and most of the surrounding population, as well as in their picturesque houses and mode of life. It is probably, however, that they come from no great distance from their present seat, and their language has been described as "old Kanarese spoken in a gale", but it seems to have closer affinity to Tamil, whilst the invocations more resemble Malayālam, with the Sanskritic strain omitted. The Kōta speak a different dialect, but the two tribes understand each other. It is not improbable, therefore, that they both moved up to the seclusion of the table-land from the Malabar forests in the neighbourhood of the Wainād or possibly even from Coorg. In the ranges south of the Nīlgiri are found several small forest tribes, most of whom live in as wild a state as the present conditions allow. The Kanikkar of Travancore are thought to be, like the Kurumban, the descendants of a race once holding dominion over the surrounding plains, but driven to the hills by invaders from the north. The title appears to indicate, like Bhūmiā and its synonyms, the first claim to the soil, and this seems to be in harmony with their position in relation to the Brāhmanic castes below the hills, who treat them as considerably purer than the menials of the village or farm. They live by rude cultivation on the wood-ash system for a part of the year, and then trust to hunting and the sale of jungle produce for the rest. They are skilled in archery, and face elephants and tigers with success. The Malāyarāyan, or Arāyan of the hills, are more settled than the Kanikkar, and have well-built villages, with considerable areas of cultivated land. In some respects they bear a striking resemblance to the Toda, as in not labouring for hire, but their reputation for practical sorcery deprives them of the sympathy of the residents of the coast. Other hill-tribes with the same title as the above or one closely resembling it, live in the forests east of the Malabar district, with a similar fame as wizards and casters of spells. All these tribes have been the subject of inquiries in the course of the Ethnographic Survey, and till recently but little was known about them.

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§ 90. In the low ranges along the Coromandel coast, known as the Eastern Ghāṭs, a few wandering tribes are still to be found subsisting by hunting, the collection of fruit and the sale of firewood to the villages round. The Yānādi and the Cencu are connected with each other, and according to the tradition among the former, the Cencu took refuge amongst the Yānādi when driven from their home in the west. The Yānādi call themselves Anāḍulu, or autochthonous. The two have the same tribal deity, named Cencu, and worship without Brāhmans or apparently priests of any sort. It may be noted, also, that Cencu is the title of a subdivision of the Gadabā tribe, further north, as well as of a section of the Yānādi, and that the same name is given to the Irula in the uplands of Mysore.

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It is not improbable, therefore, that the tribes may be connected, and that all came from the north, the Irula having settled in the forests of the transverse range uniting the eastern Ghāts with the western, at the Nilgiri. Another hypothesis is that the Yānādi may have been influenced in their religion by the immigrant Cencu; but the ethnology of all these tribes rests largely on vague surmise. It used to be held that the languages spoken by the Yānādi and Cencu were separate dialects of Telugu, but it appears from recent inquiry that they are nothing more than the rural vernacular spoken with a peculiar drawl and some differences in pronunciation. Both tribes by preference live by what they can pick up in the jungle, and sell fruit, honey and firewood in the villages of the plain. The Cencu, too, occasionally breed cattle, and the Yānādi tell fortunes. Both consider themselves above the leather-workers and lower menials of the villages.

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§ 91. **Assam Tribes.** The racial movements which have taken place in this part of India were cursorily set forth in the Introduction. Owing, no doubt, to the comparatively recent date at which successive settlements have occurred, and also, to the natural isolation of some of the tracts, which have thus been unaffected by alien inroads, the racial concentration coincides, as a rule, with the geographical position. There are exceptions, of course, as in the Central Belt, where a tribe has been cut off from its fellows, or the new-comers have been unable to effect a continuous occupation, but in most cases the tribes in question can be dealt with in groups which are geographical as well as racial.

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The general results of the Ethnographical Survey of Assam have not yet been published (1909), but several valuable monographs upon particular tribes have been prepared by local officers specially qualified for the task, and some of these have been utilised in the last three Census Reports. The numerical strength of the tribes, however, which it is the main object of the Census to discover, is not altogether satisfactorily represented by the returns, partly because of the variety of language current amongst these communities, which has the result of giving to many of the latter a title unknown within their own body. The influence of Brāhmanism, moreover, upon the numerous less civilised tribes by which it is here surrounded, turns the scale adversely to accurate ethnographic nomenclature. Members of a tribe who decide upon conformity with Brāhmanic observances are apt to signify their breach with the past by adopting the name of an existing caste, with or without a qualifying epithet. Taking an example from one of the larger communities, a Kacāri does not make use of that name, but calls himself Bārā, and when he is dallying with the outworks of Brāhmanism, he is a Sarāniyā, or a Sarāniyā Kōc. Once the plunge taken, the prefix is dropped, and he becomes Kōc. In due course, if he thrives, he dies Rājbansī. As the same course is followed by the Lālung, Mikir and Gāro tribes, the identity of the convert is lost in an all-embracing title, once racial, but now sunk into nothing more than the designation of a loosely knit and heterogeneous Brāhmanic caste. Thus the remarkable variation in the numbers returned for a tribe between one Census and another is attributable to little more than additional care in the discrimination between local terms, and, on the whole, the later enumeration may fairly be taken as more correct than its predecessor. There are other causes of variation, but they are exceptional. One tribe suffered more severely than others from the serious epidemic, called the "black disease", which ravaged the valley a few years back: another, the bulk of which resides beyond the frontier, may have sent more or fewer immigrants into British territory: elsewhere, the Census was extended to tracts in which it was not possible to conduct the operations ten years before, and so on. Even now, there are tribes of considerable importance dwelling in the north-eastern and eastern hills, which have not yet been enumerated.

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