The History and Culture of the Indian People v1.c19.s3.t2.49

v1.c19.s3.t2.49

The Nishāda mentioned in the later Saṁhitās and Brāhmaṇas appears to be, not the name of any particular tribe, but the generic term for non-Aryan tribes who were not under Aryan control. Nishādas have been distinguished from the other four Varṇas. Weber considered the Nishādas to be settled aborigines. The Smṛitis explain the Nishādas as the off-spring of a Brāhmaṇa father and a Śūdra mother. The epics represent the Nishādas as having their settlements in the Vindhya and Sātpurā ranges, and it seems that during the post-Ṛigvedic period also they inhabited mountainous tracts.