Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v2.c27.s3.3

v2.c27.s3.3

The Aboriginal Tribes.—With regard, however, to the rude tribes who still inhabit the mountains and fastnesses of India, and who may be regarded as the aborigines of that country, the converse of this doctrine is more probable. Not their language only, but [558] their superstitions, differ from those of the Rajputs: though, from a desire to rise above their natural condition, they have engrafted upon their own the most popular mythologies of their civilized conquerors, who from the north gradually spread themselves over the continent and peninsula, even to the remote isles of the Indian Ocean. Of the primitive inhabitants we may enumerate the Minas, the Meras, the Gonds, the Bhils, the Sahariyas, the Savaras, the Abhiras, the Gujars, and those who inhabit the forests of the Nerbudda, the Son, the Mahanadi, the mountains of Sarguja, and the lesser Nagpur; many of whom are still but little removed from savage life, and whose dialects are as various as their manners. These are content to be called the ‘sons of the earth,’¹ or ‘children of the forest,’² while their conquerors, the Rajputs, arrogate celestial descent.³ How soon after the flood the Suryas, or sun-worshippers, entered India Proper, must ever remain uncertain.⁴ It is sufficient that they were anterior in date to the Indus, or races tracing their descent from the moon (Ind); as the migration of the latter from the central lands of Indo-Scythia was antecedent to that of the Agnikulas, or fire-worshippers, of the Snake race, claiming Takshak as their original progenitor. The Suryas,⁵ who migrated both to the East and West, as population became redundant in these fertile regions, may be considered the Celtic, as the Indu-Getae may be accounted the Gothic, races of India.⁶ To attempt to discriminate these different races, and mark the shades which once separated them, after a system of priestcraft has amalgamated the mass, and identified their superstitions, would be fruitless; but the observer of ancient customs may, with the imperfect guidance of peculiar rites, discover things, and even names, totally incongruous with the Brahmanical system, and which could never have originated within the Indus or Atak,—the Rubicon of Gangetic antiquaries, who fear to look beyond that stream for the origin of tribes. A residence amongst the Rajputs would lead to a disregard of such boundaries, either to the moral or physical man, as the annals of Mewar abundantly testify.