Caste and Race in India c9.85

c9.85

(b) The Munda type: Peoples having a very slight tendency towards mesaticephaly and a broad-nose, nasal index above 80, are massed together in Chhota-Nagpur and Western Bengal. They are also found in Bihar, but not in the United Provinces.⁴ In this region Munda culture seems to have originally flourished.⁵ Hence it is best to designate the type as the Munda type. Some of the peoples belonging to this type speak Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages. In culture the Munda peoples have affinities with the Indonesian and the Melanesian regions. That this Munda culture had a far wider distribution than at present is certain because "Munda languages must once have been spoken over a wide area in Central India, and probably also in the Ganges Valley".⁶ Further, some of the names of villages in the districts of Gaya and Mirzapur are Munda in origin.⁷ The Munda languages are closely related to the Mon-Khmer languages spoken by the Sakais and Semangs of the Malay Peninsula and are further connected with the languages of Indonesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia in such a manner as to allow us to group them together as one family.⁸ A survival of a peculiar custom, viz. the marriage of grandfather with his granddaughter, is confined only to this part of India. The existence of it among the Oraons was first made known by Rai Bahadur S. C. Roy. A counterpart of it is known from Melanesia.⁹ Roy has also noticed certain practices from Bihar which are reminiscent of this survival.¹⁰ Another sort of survival of this curious custom is reported from Ganjam, where even now a Munda language is spoken.