A History of the Mahrattas v1.c7.35

v1.c7.35

² [The Bhīls (Bheels) are a hill-tribe of immemorial antiquity, inhabiting the hilly country between Abu and Asīrgarh, parts of Gujarāt, and the northern Deccan. They are supposed to be the ‘Pygmies’ of Ktesias (400 B.C.) and the Poulindai and Phyllitae of Ptolemy (A.D. 150). They are hunters and woodmen, but nowadays grow a little rice or maize to eke out their diet of game, roots, and fruit. Their religion consists in the worship of ghosts and of Vāghdev the ‘tiger-god,’ and every Bhīl settlement has a dēvasthān (‘god-yard’) with wooden benches for the ghosts and spirits to perch upon. The typical Bhīl is small, dark, broad-nosed, and ugly, but active and well built. The formation of Bhīl Agencies in Khāndesh District in 1825 was the first step towards their reclamation. The Mewār Bhīl Corps was one of the few native regiments in Rājputāna which stood staunchly by its British officers during the Mutiny. (I.G. Bom., 1909, i. 148-52).]