Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s6.19

c48.s6.19

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.