Caste and Race in India c9.19

c9.19

These assumptions are two: First, that the Aryan type may be described as long-headed and fine-nosed. The average cephalic index may be said to vary between 70 and 75 and the nasal index from 65 to 75. The ground for this assumption is that almost all the averages of the cephalic index and the nasal index given by Risley¹ for the castes of the Punjab and Rajputana fall within these ranges; and these are the regions which, from their geographical position, must have been the home of Aryan settlements. We may reasonably hold, therefore, that the predominant physical type of the Punjab and Rajputana represents the Aryan type. The second assumption is that the aboriginal type may be deduced from such peoples as the Musahar, who, not being within the pale of Hinduism, are like the jungle-tribes of Southern India. Their chief characteristic is the broad nose, the nasal index being above 80. Very often the head is long. The broad nose seems to have been noticed even by the Vedic poets as a characteristic of the aborigines, whom they sometimes describe as "noseless".¹