The Highlands of Central India: notes on their forests and wild tribes, natural history, and sports ... With map and illustrations

Front matter

Vmccntlirool^.Day'&oon.Ljlh. .DEATH OF THE MAN-EATER THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA: NOTES ON THEIR FORESTS AND WILD TRIBES, NATURAL HISTORY, AND SPORTS. By CAPTAIN J. FORSYTH, BENGAL STAFF CORPS. WITH MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS. LONDON : CHAPMAN & HALL, 193, PICCADILLY. 1871. LONDON : BRADBURY, EVAS6, AND CO., PRINTERS, WHITEFKIARS. b |n SUmoriant. Before the present volume was entirely through the press, the author, Captain James Forsyth, Bengal Staff Corps, late Settlement Officer and Deputy Commissioner of Nimar, Central Provinces, formerly Assistant Conser vator and Acting Conservator of Forests, Central Provinces of India, died in London, 1st Alay, 1871, aged 33. PAGE 1 CONTENTS.

Chapter I. Introductory

Physical description of the Central Highlands — The Satpura Range— Early history of G6ndwan& — The Rdjputs and their Bards — Mixed Races — Immigration of Hindus — The Conquest by Akber — Eate of the Aborigines — Overthrow of the Gond Kings — Arrival of the Marath&s — The Hill-tribes plunder the Low Country — The Pind&ris — British conquest of the Country — Improved Administration — Recent ignorance of the Interior of the Hills — Constitution of the Central Provinces — ■ Energy of the New Administration — Establishment of the Eorest Department — Exploration of the Hill Tracts — Their Area and Character — Settlement Operations — Interesting Nature of the Country — Its Aboriginal Population — The Gonds — Kolarian Races — The Kols — The Korkus — The Bygas — The Bheels — Singular facts in Distribution of Organic Products — Timber Trees — Relation to Geological Formations — The Fauna — Wild Buffalo — T welve-tined Deer — Jungle-fowl — Hog-deer — Partridges — Intrusion of Eastern Forms — Early Destruction of the Forests— The Sal— The Teak— Its usefulness— Ruin of the Teak Forests

Chapter II. The Narbada Valley

Start for the Mahadeo Hills— Camp of an Explorer— Travelling in Wild Regions— Capture of a Camel— March down the Narbada Valley — Gorge in the River— The Marble Rocks— Colonies of Bees — Fatal attack by a Swarm — Their Ferocity — Capture of the Honey — Moonlight Pic-nics — Crocodiles and Fish — Shooting a Crocodile — Cold CONTENTS. VIII PAGE Weather Marching — Prosperity of the Country — Description of Hindu Races in the Valley — Abundance of Game — Wild-fowl and Snipe — Partridge and Quail Shooting — Adventure with a Snake — The Black Antelope — Methods of Stalking — A Solitary Buck — The Indian GazeUe — Method of Shooting — The Nilgai — The Hunting Leopard — The Wolf— Man-killing Wolves— Destruction of a Pair— " Tinker " and the Wolf — Wild Boars — The People of the Narbada Valley — Gond Labourers — The Mhowa Tree — Coal Mines — Snipe Shooting — Hill Forts — Jungle Clearings — Forest Animals ..... 34

Chapter III. The Mahadeo Hills

The Mahadeo Mountains — Sacred Hills — Ascent to Puchmurree — Aspect of the Forest — Park-like Scenery — A Moist Night — Solitary Snipe — Description of the Plateau — Fine Views — The Denwa Valley — The Andeh K6h — Legends of the Place — Ancient Remains — The Great Ravine — The Sonbhadra Gorge — The Great Red Squirrel — A TTill Chief — Caprice of the Hill-men — Their System of Tillage — Destruction of the Forests — Incursions of Wild Animals — Gond Legend — Dense Jungles — Restlessness of the Aborigines — Their Precarious Livelihood — Produce of the Jungles — The Seeding of the Bamboo — -Scarcity in the Hills — Bunjara Carriers — Project a Forest Lodge — Find Lime — The Indian Bison — His Habits and Range — Growth of his Horns — A Grand Hunt — Kill a Stag Sambar — A Bull shot by the Thakur — Power of the Bison — A Hill Tiger — A Mother's Defence — Description of Gonds and Korkus — A Midnight Revel — The Wild Men are conciliated — We teach them to Build and Plough — The D6nwa Sal Forest — The Twelve-tined Deer — Jungle-fowl — Spur-fowl — Gazelles and Hares — Fire-hunting by Night — Bears and Panthers — A troublesome Panther — Fox-hunting at Puchmurree — Bison-Stalking — A Brace of Bulls — Tracking the Bison — A Hard Day's Work— Death of the Bull . . ■"-- , . . .81

Chapter IV. The Aboriginal Tribes

Interest of the Subject — An Historical Parallel — Influence of contact with Hinduism — Mixed Races— The Rajgonds — The Korkus — the Bhilalas — Introduction of Caste — Difficulties of Investigation — Meagreness of Aboriginal Languages — Gond Legends — Religion of the Gonds— CONTENTS. IX PAGE Worship of Powers of Nature — Fetishism — Worship of Ancestors — Demigods and Heroes — Idol Worship — Sivaism — Religious Cere monies — The Great Spirit — Religion of the Korkus — Sun Worship — Burial Customs of the Tribes — Personal Appearance — Marriage Cus toms — Economical Position of the Tribes — Drunkenness — Agricul tural Position — The Timber Trade — Demoralization of the Tribes — Retribution — Excise Laws — Forest Regulations — Improvement in the Condition of the Aborigines — Effect of High Prices — Culture of the Oil-seed Plant — Influence of Hinduism — Future of the Abori gines — Measures Required — Hindoo Pilgrims to the Shrine of Maha deo — An Indian Fair — Description of the Shrine — The Religion of Sivaism — Human Sacrifices — Onakar Mandhatta — Death of a Victim — A Priestly Murder — Cholera among the Pilgrims — Panic and Flight — The Scapegoat 133

Chapter V. The Lay Of Saint Lingo

1. The Creation and Exile of the Gonds— 2. The Coming of Lingo— 3. The Deliverance of the Gonds — 4. Subdivision into Tribes, and Worship of the Gond Deities 179

Chapter VI. The Teak Region

The Trap Country — Condition of the Teak Forests— Other Timber Trees The Tapti Valley — The Frankincense Tree — Aspect of the Forests in the Trap Region — Jungle Fires — Ancient Settlements — The Korkus of the Tapti Valley— Difficulty of Exploration— Wild Sports — The Sambar Deer — Its Habits and Food— Death of the Bori Stag— Horns of the Sambar— Curious Occurrences in Shooting- -Incidents in Tiger Shooting— Stalking the Sambar— The Hatti HiUs— The Bheels— A Bheel Fort — Mahomedan Architecture — Difficulty of finding Sambar Dhaotea — Disappearance of the Sambar — Return to the Plains— The VaUey of the Vultures— Return to the Sambar Ground— Shoot a Stag Miss another— The Four-horned Antelope— Bison Shooting— The "Shrimp" and the "Skunk"— Find a Herd— Kill a Bull— A Dangerous Position — A Solitary BuU — We miss the Water— Another Bull KiUed— A Herd of Sambar— Account of a Bag . . . .199 CONTENTS. X PAGE 252

Chapter VII. The Tiger

Tiger-shooting in the Hot Weather — Different Sorts of Tigers— The GamekiUer — The Cattle-eater — The Man-eater — Haunts of the Tiger — Destructiveness of Tigers — Native Shikaris — Beating for Tigers — Shooting on Foot — Shooting with an Elephants — Difficulty of Finding Tigers — Method of Hunting — Search for information — Viceregal Tiger-shooting— A Tiger in a Tobacco-field — The Hot Weather Camp — The VUlage Shikari— Spying out the Land — Nocturnal Life of Wild Animals — Tyranny of the Tiger — Tiger Tracks — The Monkeys Inform — Death of a Tiger — Pranks of Juvemle Tigers — The Monkeys Prevaricate — Almost too Close — Singular Effect of a SheU — An Abrupt Introduction — A Man-eating Tigress — The Monkeys are Right — Alarm Cries of Animals — A Beef-eater slain— Terrific Heat — Size of Tigers — Baits for Tigers — Caste Objections — Tiger Shikaris — The "LaUa"— He is KiUed by a Tiger— Revenge— What a Shikari should not be — The Tiger in his Lair — -Trained Elephants — Purchasing Elephants — Their "Points" — Selection of a Hunting Elephant — A Man-kiUer — Entering Elephants — Elephantine Vices — Keeping Elephants — A Bag of Tigers — Ravages of a Man-eating Tiger — Unfortunate Delay — Denizens of a Mango Grove — Sharp Treatment effects a Cure — Start after the Man-eater — Deserted VUlages — A Pilgrim Devoured — Unsuccessful Hunt — A Bait Proposed — Another Victim — On the Trail — A Long Day's Work — Renew the Chace — Exciting Sport — An Elephant KiUed by a Tiger — Find the Man-eater — He charges Home — Blown up by a SheU — Elephant Anecdote — Destructiveness of Tigers — Proposals for their Extermination — What can be Done — Get Jungle Fever — Return to Puchmurree — A cool Climate — Completion of "Bison Lodge" — Burst ofthe Monsoon — Advantages of Puchnjurree — Selected as a Sanitarium — Return to Jubbulpur

Chapter VIII. The Higher Narbada

Jubbulpur Transformed — Effects of the Railway along the Narbada — A Station Shikari — The Panther and the Leopard — Dangers of Panther Hunting — A Man-eating Panther— Curious Legend — Cunning of Panthers — A Determined Charge — Baits for the Panther — A Hot- Weather Excursion — Dance of the Peacocks — Deer Shooting from CONTENTS. XI PAGE 314 355 a "Dug-out" — The Spotted Deer — An Interview with a Tiger — The Monkey's Leap — Immense Herd of Deer — A Famous Tiger— A Suc cessful Beat — A Midnight Intruder— The Man-eater of Pouhri — Ghostly Legend — Coursing the Sambar — Native Dogs— The Wild Dog — Bunjara Dogs — The Black Bear— A Family Charge— Bear Shooting — Large Python

Chapter IX. The Sal Forest

Head Streams of the Narbada — The Mandla Plateau — A Prairie Country — Character of the Uplands — Scenery — Climate — Scanty Population — Gonds — Bygas — Their retired Habits — Poisoned Arrows — Courage of the Bygas — Patriarchial Institutions — A singular Race — The Byga. Medicine Man — Tiger Charming — A pleasant Custom — Byga. Seers — ■ Religious Sentiments — Destruction of Sal Trees — The Dammer Resin — Traffic of the Bygas — Character of the Sal Forests — Forest Products — Lac Dye — Tusser Silk — A Grazing Country — Value of Cattle — Prospects of the Country — Its Resources — Causes of Backwardness — Wanting Population — Distance of Markets — Malaria — Advantages of tho Tract for Settlers — European Colonisation — Field for Enterprise — A Missionary Attempt — Land Jobbing — Prospects of Missions — Wild Animals — The Red Deer — Its Habits — Variety of Game — A Christmas Party — Beating with Elephants — A Tiger Shot Flying — The Halon VaUey — A Mendicant killed by a Tiger — Stalking the Red Deer — KiU a Stag— A Run at a Hind— A Wild Elephant — Singular Freak — Range of Wud Elephants — Tigers Roaring at Night — A Remarkable Serenade — Large Herds of Red Deer — The Wild Buffalo

Chapter X. An Exploration In The Far East

A Commanding Promontory — The Source of the Narbada — Sivite Legends Fine View — A Long Exploration — The Wild Buffalo — Its Range and Habits— Criminal Trespass— The PoUce caUed in— We slay the Invader — Toughness of the Buffalo— Size of his Horns— A Voyage down the Mahanadi— The Country of the Khonds — More Buffaloes — A Feverish Region — Buffalo Hunting on Horseback — A Vicious Cow Upset by a Bull — " Tinker " to the Rescue — A Curious Sentinel — Treed by Buffaloes — The Enemy retires — Danger of Buffalo Shooting A Cumbrous Trophy — March for the Elephant Country — A Decayed CONTENTS. XII PAUE City — An unfortunate Seizure— Retire to Laafagarh — A Hospitable Chief — The Bygas again — A Primitive Pipe — An Amazing Spectacle — The Elephant God— Life at Laafagarh — The Doctor discomfited — Jungle Delicacies — The Thakur's Yarns — A Tiger Shot with an Arrow — An Elephant Done to Death— A " Loathly Worm " — WUd Animals on the Hill — An irksome Prison — Make another Start — A splendid Game Country — A Herd of Elephants — A SoUtary Tusker — Almost an Adventure — A Villainous Termination — Explore the Country — Bhumia Trackers — Fate of a Herd of Elephants — A Vast Sal Forest — The Way lost — Beat out' a Bhumia — Habits of the Bhii mias — Aspect of the Country — A Primitive Measure of Distance — Haunts of the Buffaloes — Capture of wUd Elephants — Coal Mea sures — Prospects of the Country — The Plateau of Amarkantak — A Terrible March — End of the Exploration — Effects of Exposure — The Forest Question — Utility of Forests — Prospects of the Forests — Central India as a Field for Sport — Where to go — Outfit — Guns and Rifles — Conclusion 395 APPENDICES.

Appendix A. Note on the Diseases of Elephants, and the Treatment of the Animal in Captivity — B. Rules for the Sale and Lease of Waste Lands in the Central Provinces— C. Useful Trees of the Forests of Central India — D. Vocabulary of Local Terms — E. Hints on the Preservation of Natural History Specimens . . . . .451 THE HIGHLANDS OP CBNTEAL INDIA.

Chapter I. Introductory

Physical description of the Central Highlands — The Satpiira Range — Early history of Gondwana — The R&jputs and their bards — Mixed races — Immigration of Hindus — The conquest by Akber — Fate of the aborigines — Overthrow of the Gond Kings — Arrival of the MaratMs — The hill-tribes plunder the low country — The Pind&ris — British conquest of the country — Improved administration — Recent ignorance of the interior of the bills — Constitution of the Central Provinces — Energy of the new administration — Establishment of the Forest Departments — Exploration of the hill tracts — Their area and character — Settlement operations — Interesting nature of the country — Its aboriginal population — The Gonds — Kolarian races — The Kols — The Korkus — The Byg&s — The Bheels — Singular facts in distribution of organic products — Timber trees — Relation to geological formations — The fauna — Wild buffalo — Twelve-tined deer — Jungle-fowl — Hog-deer — Partridges — -Intrusion of Eastern forms — Early destruction of the forests — The Sal — The Teak — Its usefulness — Ruin of the Teak forests.

People commonly talk of the "hills" and the "plains" of India, meaning by the former the great Himalayan range, and by the latter all the rest of the country. The mightiest mountains of the earth are called nothing more than "hills ;" and popular geography has no name for the numerous excres cences of mother earth which intersect the so-called region of " plains." A range called the Nilgherries, in the south of the peninsula, approaching 9,000 feet in altitude, is known to a few beyond the limits of India as a resort of invalids, and a nursery for cinchonas ; but of lesser ranges than this, which B would still be called mountains in any other country, the mass of " ordinary readers " has no cognizance. Much of this has really been owing to the unexplored and undescribed condition of such regions ; but something also to the overwhelming prominence of the great northern range, which rivets the attention of teachers of geography and their pupils, and also, from the exigencies of the art of chartography, renders it almost impossible to delineate on ordinary maps of India the features of inferior ranges.

Yet in the very centre of India there exists a considerable region to which the term Highlands, which I have adopted for a title, is strictly applicable ; and in which are numerous peaks and ranges, for which the term " mountain" would, in any other country, be used. Several of the great rivers of India have their first sources in this elevated region, and pour their waters into the sea on either side of the peninsula — to the north the Son commingling with the Ganges, to the east the Mahanadi, flowing independently to the Bay of Bengal, to the south some of the principal feeders of the Godavari, and to the west the Narbada and the Ttipti, taking parallel courses to the Arabian Gulf. If the reader will seek the head-waters of these rivers on the map, he will find the region I am about to describe.

To be more precise, it lies on the 22nd parallel of north latitude, and between the 76th and 82nd' of east longitude. It forms the central and culminating section of a ridge of elevated country which stretches across the peninsula, from near Calcutta to near Bombay, and separates Northern India, or Hindostan proper, from the Deccan, or country of the south. The traveller by the new Great Indian Peninsular Bailway from Bombay to Calcutta, after some 275 miles of his journey, will come to a point where the line branches into two. The northern branch leads him on up the Narbada valley, INTRODUCTORY. 3 and so, by Alahabad and the Gangetic valley, to the City of Palaces. If he takes the southern branch instead, he will be landed at Nagpiir, a city in the very heart of India, and its present terminal station.

Between these two branches lies a triangle of country in which is situated the western half of the highlands I speak of. From its western extremity, in the fork of these lines, the mountainous region extends eastwards for a distance of about 450 miles, with an average width of about 80 miles. The general level of what may be called the plains of Central India has here, by gradual, and to the traveller scarcely perceptible, steps, reached an altitude of about 1,000 feet above the level of the sea ; and he will rise but little higher than this at any point on the lines of railway. So soon, however, as he leaves the railway, and proceeds a few miles towards the interior of the triangle, he will begin to come on ranges of hills, at first generally' low, but in places attain ing at once a height of about 1,000 feet from the plain ; and beyond them peaks and plateaux will present themselves evi dently of much superior elevation.

Valleys will everywhere be found penetrating the hills, by following which he may rise gradually to these higher regions ; and soon he will exchange the rich cultivation of the flat land through which the rail way passes for unreclaimed waste and rugged forest-covered steeps. He will now find himself in a region where all is chaos to the unguided traveller ; where hill after hill of the same wild and undefined character are piled together ; where the streams appear to run in all directions at once ; and it will not be until he has traversed the whole region, or closely studied a map, that some method will begin to evolve itself, and the geography become plain. He will find that at a height os' B about 1,000 feet above the plain, that is of about 2,000 above the sea, the hills have a tendency to spread out in the form of plateaux ; some comprising the top of only one hill and a small area ; others like a group of many hills, Avhich support, like buttresses, on their summits, large level or undulating plains.

From these again he will find shooting up still higher, a good many other solitary flat-topped hills, reaching the height of nearly 3,500 feet; some of which in like manner unite into plateaux at about the same elevation. Yet higher than these, but never assuming the character of a plateau, he will see here and there a peak rising to nearly 5, 000. feet above the sea. As is usual, the inhabitants of the hills themselves have no general name for the whole chain ; each individual hill or minor range being called by a local name derived from the nearest village, or the species of tree it bears, or a god, or a river, or some other accidental circumstance. The Hindus of the plains have several terms for its different sections, calling the most easterly the Mykal, the centre the Mtlhddeo, and the western the Satpura hills.

Geographers have applied the name Satpura to the entire range ; and the name is perhaps as appropriate as any which could be selected. The watershed of these mountains varies in direction in their several sections. In the extreme east the rano-e termi nates in a bluff promontory with a precipitous face to the south, throwing the whole of the drainage of a vast area towards the north. This is the cradle of the Narbada river, which soon leaves its parent hills, and flows through a wide valley of its own along the northern face of the range. In the centre the range culminates in the bold group of the MaM deos, crowned by the Puchmurree peaks, throwing the drainage almost equally to the north and south, the former into the INTRODUCTORY. 5 Narbada, and the latter into the Godavari. The western sec tion (the Satpuras proper) is cleft in two by a deep valley, and drains inwards, forming the river Tapti, which, like the Narbada, flows for but a short part of its course within the hills before it leaves them altogether, and runs along their southern face to the sea.

Such, however, is the tortuous for mation of these mountains, that their streams frequently sur prise one by turning short round in their courses, and making off towards the wrong river, as if they had suddenly changed their minds. The drainage of the great central Mahadeo block is a striking example of this. Two streams rise near its southern face, the Denwd, and the S6nbadra\ Both flow nearly south, away from the Narbada, for a short way, when the former turns to the east and the latter to the west. Pre sently, however, they find two vast cracks in the range, and turn sharp to the north, passing through them to the northern face, where they unite and fall into the Narbadd, after all. This extensive region emerged from the outer darkness that shrouds the early history of such immense tracts in India only within the last three centuries.

Before then we have nothing to grope by in the thick darkness but the will-o' the-wisp lights of tradition, and the scarcely more reliable indications of a few ruinous remains and vague inscriptions. The aborigines have never possessed a written language, and the Hindu races, who have within the last few centuries peopled the valleys that surround and interpenetrate the hills, have allowed their literature to remain the monopoly of a priestly caste, whose very existence was bound up in the necessity of falsifying all history. Their only writings which wear even the remotest semblance of history — the Maha bharat and Ramayan epics — speak of all India south of the Jamna as a vast wilderness inhabited by hostile demons and snakes. Religious hermits of the northern race are described as dwelling in leafy bowers in their midst, while heroes and demigods wandered about like knights-errant, protecting the devotees from their hostile acts, which seem more like the pranks of frisky monkeys than the actions of human beings.

The snakes and demons have been conjectured, with some probability, to have been the black aborigines of the country, and the scenes of the epics to pourtray the gradual advance of the Aryan race and religion into their midst. The wandering Rajas are frequently described as allying themselves in marriage with the daughters of the potent demons, and so far the poems agree with what is otherwise shown to be probable. Nothing like a connected historical narrative is, however, to be extracted from the mass of Brahminical fiction ; and whatever value such materials may yield to the investigation of the history of the Aryan or conquering races, they are worth nothing as bearing on that of the wild men of the wilderness, who are throughout regarded as being as much beyond the pale of humanity as their country was beyond the Aryan pale — the land of clearings and the black antelope.

We have a few architectural remains and inscriptions that tell of Aryan chiefs holding power in parts of the Narbadd valley and the central plateaux, between the 5th and the 1 4th centuries. But who and what they were, and what was really their position, their is nothing to show. Remains of religious edifices surrounded by fortifications point to the probability of their having been the heads of isolated bands of the warlike caste, protecting settlements of missionary priests, and perhaps, by superior courage and arms, holding in nominal subjection the aboriginal tribes around them. Traditions exist of a pastoral race, to whom is attributed every ancient build- INTRODUCTORY. 7 ing that cannot be otherwise accounted for. It is highly pro bable that the cow was unknown to the aborigines before it was brought by their Aryan invaders.

Tradition would probably fix on so striking a feature as the possession of herds by those early colonists ; and thus it does not seem necessary to suppose the existence of any peculiar pastoral people, distinct from other Aryan settlers in these central regions. But what these early immigrants may really have been is unimportant. For, when first the light of true history breaks upon the country, at the period of its contact with the invading Mahomedan in the 14th century, all of them had ceased to have any separate existence. Most probably they had been absorbed in the great mass of the aboriginal tribes who sur rounded them : and we find the country then called by the name of G6ndwana, from the tribe of Gonds who chiefly inhabited it. The petty tribal chieftainships, into which, there is reason to believe, it had formerly been divided, had then been united into three considerable principalities, under the sway of chiefs whom all the evidence we have proves to have been of mixed aboriginal and Hindu (R&jpiit) descent.

Architectural remains, and the recorded condition of the country at the time mentioned, show that these little kingdoms had acquired a considerable degree of stability and development ; and it has often been wondered how a tribe of such rude savages as the Gonds could have reached a stage of civilization at that early period so greatly above anything they have since shown themselves to be capable of. The explanation seems to lie in the circumstance mentioned. The real establishers of these courts, and introducers of the arts, were not Gonds but Hindus. It is the custom in all families which trace their lineage to the fountain-head of Hindu aristocracy among the Rajptft clans of Rajasthan to retain, like the Celtic chieftains of our own country, family bards, whose duty it is to record in a genealogical volume, and recite on great occasions, the descent and family history of their patrons.

The bardic office is hereditary, and where the lineage of the family is really ancient the bard is generally also a descendant of the bards of the original clan. Often he is the chief bard of the clan itself, and resides with its hereditary head at the family seat in Rajasthan, visiting at intervals the cadet branches of the house to record their domestic events. In G6ndwan£ numerous chiefs now exist who claim either a pure descent from Rajput houses, or more frequently admit their remote origin to have sprung from a union between some Rajput adventurer of noble blood and one of the daughters of the aborigines. Few of them are admitted to be pure Rajputs by the blue-blooded chiefs of Rajasthd,n ; but all have their bards and genealogies. These, like such documents in all countries, often go back to fabulous times, and are overlaid with modern fiction ; but the legendary portion of the bardic chronicle can generally be separated with little difficulty from a solid residue of probable fact.

The general conclusion to be drawn from the evidence of these writings, supported as they are by tradition and later history, is that during the 1 4th and 1 5th centuries, and it may be even earlier, a great immigration of the Rajput clans took place into the country of the aborigines. The Mahomedan invaders of Upper India were then pressing hard on the country between the Ganges and the Narbada rivers occupied by the Rajputs ; and it was doubtless the recoil from them that forced these colonies of Rajputs southwards into the wilds of Central India. Here it would seem that they generally formed matrimonial alliances with the indigenous tribes.. INTRODUCTORY. 9 The superior qualities of the Aryan race would soon assert themselves among such inert races as these aborigines ; and there is little doubt that before the arrival of the Mahomedans, not only the heads of what have been termed the G<5nd king doms, but also many of the subordinate chiefs, were far more Hindu than aboriginal in blood.

The unfailing evidence of physical appearance supports these indications of tradi tion. Most of the chiefs possess the tall well-proportioned figure and light complexion of the Hindu, but allied with more or less of the thickness of lip and animal type of countenance of the pure aborigine. The mass of the tribes on the other hand are marked by the black skin, short squat figure, and features of the negretto race of humanity. Between them are found certain sections of the tribes, who would seem to have been also imbued with something of the foreign blood, though in a less degree than the chiefs. Like the latter they affect much Hindu manners and customs ; and it is probable that they too are the result of some connection in long past times between immigrant Aryans and the indigenous tribes.