1 THE ABORIGINES. 19
2 which divide Orissa from the Deccan. The Khonds are men of a deep
3 black colour, with thick, long, black hair anda peculiar language. They are of
4 pure ancient descent and have preserved their distinctive ancient rites
5 and customs, without intermixture with the Hindus. Jfolis,* Bhils and
6 Gonds are confined to the mountain ranges of the Vindhia, Saétpura and
7 Aravali in Central India. The wilder tribes of Gonds still live in forests
8 and subsist on the chase. Further west are Minas, Waghars, and Mahars,
9 who all preserve their aboriginal customs and language. The Mahars,
10 Beydars, Mangs, Whallias, Purias, Wadars, and others in the Deccan and
11 Mysore, with a few others mentioned below, represent the rest of the
12 aboriginal tribes. Though more or less mixed with the Hindus, they have
13 retained their original superstitions, and have not abandoned the worship of
14 demons, spirits, and natural objects. The Carambers, Irulars, and Paliars
15 are found among the mountain ranges of Southern India and the Nilgiris,
16 the sanitarium of the Madras Presidency. They live in deep forests and lead
17 savage lives, like the cannibals of the Andaman Islands.
18 The conquest of the aboriginal tribes of India by the great Aryan race
19 from the north-west drove these tribes to the wildest regions of the hills
20 forests and lowlands now inhabited by them, just as, on the conquest of
21 Spain by the Arabs, the Goths withdrew to the Galician and Asturian moun-
22 tains, or, after the Norman conquest, the Saxon outlaw resorted to distant
23 hills, marshes and fens. Thus, the Aryans did not mingle with the
24 ancient population whom they conquered, but expelled them, and drove
25 them to take refuge in inaccessible mountains and morasses. Those who
26 accepted their civilization were allowed to live in despised and subordinate
27 positions. These formed the mixed races now represented by the working
28 classes, the cultivators, the artisans, the labourers and watchmen, in Hindu
29 village communities. The ancient race of conquerors received in the land
30 -of their adoption the appellation of Hindus.
31 Who are these aborigines, the fragments of prehistoric times, who were sub-
32 dued by the Aryan invaders from the north more than three thousand years
33 ago? They belonged, no doubt, to one common stock, and that stock was of
34 Scythian origin.t In the remotest ages they lived in the plains of Central
35 Asia, the primitive home of the Mongolians and the Chinese. This is proved
36 not only by their common physiognomy but by the affinity of spoken words in
37 _ the hills of Hastern Bengal, China and Assam, and by a close resemblance
38 in their religious beliefs, customs and usages.
39 In various parts of Southern India, tools and weapons made of stone,
40 flint knives and axes have been found. The ancient Sanskrit literature
41 bears testimony to the fact that India, like the countries of Europe, had
42 successively its ages of stone, bronze and iron. Thus, the warriors of Rama
43 are described inthe Ramayana as having fought with stone implements
44 against their enemies. The thunderbolt of Indra is described as a lithic missile.
45 Sepulchral monuments, made of round or conical stones, huge rocks, or
46 of this. Itis your desire only to compel us to perform your due rites and then to raise and
47 enrich us. Do you now enrich us ! Let our herds be so numerous that they cannot be housed ;
48 let children so abound that the care of them shall overcome their parents, as shall be seen by
49 their burned hands; let our heads ever strike against brass pots innumerable hanging from our
50 roofs ; let the rats form their nests of shreds of scarlet cloth and silk, let all the kites of
51 the country be seen in the trees of our village from beasts being killed there every day.
52 We are ignorant of what is good to ask for. You know what is good for us. Give it to us.”—
53 Journal of B. A. 8S. for 1852.
54 * General Briggs thinks it was when Europeans first employed the Kolis as porters that
55 the English gave them the appellation Kz, now universally applied to porters of all races
56 throughout India.
57 ., t General Briggs thinks they were of common origin with the Scythian or Central Asian
58 tribes. The same view is held by Mr. Hodgson, late Resident of Nepal.
59 They were driven
60 back from the Panjab
61 plains by the great
62 Aryan race.
63 The Hindus,
64 The primitive tribes
65 were of Scythic
66 origins,
67 Flint weapons,
68 Sri Satguru J agjit Singh Ji eLibrary NamdhariElibrary@ gmail.com