ÁkáÁborMishimíBurmeseKarenSingphoJilíGároManipuríSongpúKapwíKorengMarámChamphungLuhuppaN.TángkhulC.TángkhulS.TángkhulKhoibúMaringÁká47201712151551131038885610810Ábor472011101811615611586888101018Mishimí202010101013101101103568613108Burmese171110232326121682061111111013131616Karen1210102317218151015812412812121015Singpho15181023177016251018111113151325132018Jilí15111326217022161021131111182020132020Gáro56101281622105658581311555Manipurí11151116152516102141182528312835334050Songpú36081010105213550532023151513815Kapwí1011112015182164135303320353040453840Koreng35068111351850304118212020111015Marám8831112111182553334121282520162326Champhung865114131152820201821402020161525Luhuppa8861112151883123352128406355363340N. Tángkhul5881081320132815302025206385303131C. Tángkhul68613122520113515402020205585414541S. Tángkhul1010131312131353313451116163630414343Khoibú81010161020205408381023153331454378Maring101881615182055015401526254031414378
The last eleven dialects are not spoken in any British dependency; and they have only been mentioned for the sake of explaining the table.
All belong to one and the same class; a point upon which I see no room for doubt; although respecting thevalueof that class I admit that some exists.
For this, the termBurmeseis as good as any other—without professing to be better; yet, should it seem too precise, there is no objection to the sufficiently general term ofmonosyllabicbeing substituted for it.
The reader, however, may doubt the fact of the[114]affinities. This has been done. Long before the present writer knew of such dialects as the Jili, Mishimi, Aka, Abor, Singpho, and the like, he had satisfied himself that the Garo was monosyllabic, and had so expressed himself in 1844,[32]when Brown's Tables had been published, though not seen by him. It was with surprise, then, that he found the author of them writing, that "it would be difficult to decide from the specimens before us, whether it is to be ranked with the monosyllabic or polysyllabic languages. It probably belongs to the latter."
Again, Mr. Hodgson makes the Garo Tamulian,i.e., polysyllabic; a fact which will be noticed again when the Bodo, Dhimal, and Kocch have been disposed of.
The Kocch,Bodo, andDhimalis the title of one of that writer's works—a model of an ethnological monograph. This gives us a new class. The Bodo of Hodgson are the wild tribes that skirt the Himalayas, from Assam to Sikkim. West of these, between the river Konki and the river Dhorla are the Dhimal, a small tribe mixed with Bodo; and, southwards, in Kocch Behar, are the Kocch. The two former are so much described together that a separation is difficult. This leaves us at liberty to follow the details of[115]either one population or of both. The history of a Bodo from his cradle to his grave is as follows. The birth is attended with aminimumamount of ceremonies. Midwives there are none; but labours are easy. Neither has the priest much to do with ushering-in the new-comer to the world. A short period of uncleanness is recognized, but it is only a short one; the purification consisting in the acts of bathing and shaving performed by the parties themselves. Four or five days after delivery, the mother goes out into the world; and at that time, the child is named. Any passing event determines this; as there are no family names, and no names taken from their mythology. The account, however, of Mr. Hodgson, in this respect is somewhat obscure, "A Bhotia chief arrives at the village, and the child is named Jinkháp; or a hill peasant arrives, and it is named Gongar, after the titular, or general designation of the Bhotias."
As long as a mother can suckle a child (orchildren) she continues to do so, sometimes for so long a period as three years, when the last and last but one may be seen sucking together.
The period of weaning is thus delayed; and, notwithstanding the current notion as to the prematurity of marriages in warm climates, that of wedlock is delayed as well: the male waits till he is twenty or twenty-five, the female till between[116]fifteen and twenty. The parties least concerned are the bride and bridegroom; the parents do the courtship. Those of the lady take a payment. This is called aJanamongst the Bodo, and varies from ten to fifteen rupees. With the Dhimal it is aGandi, and amounts to a higher sum, ranging from fifteen to forty-five. Failing this, service must be done by the youth; and a wife be earned as Jacob earned Leah and Rachel. This is theGaborof the Bodo, and theGharjyaof the Dhimal.
Such marriages are easily dissolved,i.e., at the option of either party. In case, however, of infidelity on the part of a wife having caused a divorce, the wedding-money is repaid. Adoption is common, concubinage rare; each being on a level with marriage in respect to thestatusof the children. Of these, all males inherit alike; but the rights of the female are limited.
The ceremony itself begins with a procession on the part of the bridegroom's friends to the bride's house, two females accompanying them. Of these, it is the business to put red-lead and oil on the bride-elect's hair. A feast follows; after which the husband takes his wife home. Thus far the Bodo forms agree with the Dhimal; but they differ in what follows.
The Bodosacrifices a cock and a hen in the[117]names of the bridegroom and the bride, respectively to the Sun.
The DhimalpropitiateDataandBedataby presents of betel-leaf and red-lead.
Both bury their dead, and purify themselves by ablution in the nearest stream when the funeral procession is over. The family, however, of the deceased is considered as unclean for three days.
A feast with sacrifices attends the purification. Before sitting down, they repair once more to the grave, and present the dead with some of the food from the banquet;—"take and eat, heretofore you have eaten and drunk with us; you can do so no more; you were one of us, you can be so no longer; we come no more to you; come you not to us." After this each member of the party takes from his wrist a bracelet of thread, and throws it on the grave.
A ceremonial implies a priesthood. Under this class come the Deoshi, the Dhami, the Ojha, and the Phantwal.
The first of these is the village, the second the district, priest.
The Ojha is the village exorcist; and the Phantwal a subordinate of the Deoshi. The influence of this clerical body, although probably higher than Mr. Hodgson places it, is, evidently, anything but exorbitant.[118]
I cannot find anything in the Bodo and Dhimal superstitions higher than what was found in Africa. Nor yet is anythingessentiallydifferent. Similar intellectual conditions develop similar creeds, independent of intercourse; a fact which, the more we go into the natural history of religions, the more we shall verify. We read indeed ofoathsandordeals; but oaths and ordeals are by no means, what they have too loosely been supposed to be, appeals to the moral nature of the Divinity. Thedhoomtest, in Old Calabar, is an ordeal. The criminal tests of the Fantis are the same. Indeed, few, if any tribes, are without them. What the real ideas are which determine such and such-like ceremonies is difficult for intellectual adults to understand. The way towards their appreciation lies in the phenomena of a child's mind; the true clue to the psychology of rude populations.
If we take the Bodo and Dhimal religions in detail we find ourselves in a familiar field, with well-known forms of superstition around us.
Diseases are attributed to supernatural agency; and the medicine-man, exorcist, or Ojha, is more priest than surgeon.
Thefeticismof Africa re-appears; at least such is my inference from the following extract. "Bathois clearly and indisputably identifiable withsomething tangible,viz., theSijorEuphorbia;[119]though why that useless and even exotic plant should have been thus selected to type the Godhead, I have failed to learn."
Euhemerism, or the worship of dead men deified, is to be found either in its germs or its rudiments; at any rate, one of their deities bears the name of Hajo, a known historic personage. But this may be referable to Hindú influences unequivocally traceable in other parts of the Pantheon.
It is the rites and ceremonies of a country that give us its religion in the concrete. All beyond is an abstraction. These, with the Bodo and Dhimal, are numerous. Invocations, deprecations, and thanksgivings are all mentioned by Mr. Hodgson; and they are all attended by offerings or sacrifices; libations attend the sacrifices, and feasting follows the libations.
The great festivals of the year are four for the Bodo, three for the Dhimal.
a.In December or January, when the cotton-crop is ready, the Bodo hold theirShurkhar, the Dhimal theirHarejata.
b.In February or March, the Bodo hold theWagaleno.
c.In July or August, the rice comes into ear. This brings on the BodoPhulthepno, and the DhimalGavipuja.[120]
All these are celebrated out of doors, and on agricultural occasions.
d.The fourth great festival is held at home; its time being the month of October; its nameAihunoin Bodo, andPochima pakain Dhimal. Here, in theAihunoat least, the family assembles, the priest joins it, and the Sij, or Euphorbia, represents Batho. This is placed in the middle of the room, has prayers offered to it, and acockas a sacrifice; whilst Mainou's offering is ahog; Agrang's ahe-goat, and so on, through the whole list of the ninenooni madai, or deities thus worshipped. As for the symbols which represent them, besides the Sij, which stands for Batho, there is a bamboo post about three feet high, surmounted by a small cup of rice, denoting Mainou; but the equivalents of the other seven are somewhat uncertain.
The Wagaleno festival was witnessed by Mr. Hodgson and Dr. Campbell. The account of it is something lengthy. I mention it, however, for the sake of one of its principal actors—the Déódá. This is thepossessed, who, "when filled with the god, answers by inspiration to the question of the priest as to the prospects of the coming season. When we first discerned him, he was sitting on the ground, panting, and rolling his eyes so significantly that I at once conjectured his function. Shortly afterwards, the rite[121]still proceeding, the Déódá got up, entered the circle, and commenced dancing with the rest, but more wildly. He held a short staff in his hand, with which, from time to time, he struck the bedizened poles, one by one, and lowering it as he struck. The chief dancer with the odd-shaped instrument waxed more and more vehement in his dance; the inspired grew more and more maniacal; the music more and more rapid; the incantation more and more solemn and earnest; till, at last, amid a general lowering of the heads of the decked bamboo poles, so that they met and formed a canopy over him, the Déódá went off in an affected fit, and the ceremony closed without any revelation." This self-excited state of ecstasy is an element of most religions in the same stage of development; and a low level it indicates. In Greece, in Africa, and in Northern Asia, we find it as regularly as we find a coarse and material creed; and to the coarseness of the materialism of such a creed it is generally proportionate.
Witches, and the discovery of them, and the influence of the evil eye are part and parcel of the Bodo and Dhimal superstitions.
Kocchmeans a population, which possibly amounts to as much as a million souls, extended from about 88° to 93½° East long., and 25° to 27° North lat., and of which Kocch Behar is the political[122]centre. The term isethnological—not political. It is ethnological, and not political, because, although originally native, it has since been partially abandoned.Allthe inhabitants of the parts in questiononcecalled themselves Kocch; and Kocch they were called by their neighbours the Mech. At this time the country was unequivocally other than Indian;i.e., in the same category with that of the Garo and Bodo. Since then, however, great changes have taken place; so that, just as Wales is partially Anglicized, the Welsh language being replaced by the English, the Kocch—the native tongue—is under the process of being replaced by a Hindú dialect. Nevertheless, just as many a Welshman who speaks nothing but English is still a Welshman, so are the Kocch, who have changed their languages, Bodo, Garo, or something closely akin, in ethnological position.
The extent to which different portions of the once great Kocch nation have abandoned or retained their original characteristics is easily measured.
1. Those who have changed most speak a form of the Bengali, and are imperfect Mahometans; imperfect, because their creed is strongly tinctured with Hinduism. Thus the very epithet which they apply to themselves is Brahminical;Rájbansi=Suryabansi=Sun-born. The converted[123]Kocch of the Mahometan creed are chiefly of the lower order of the province of Behar.
2. Those who have changed, but changed less than theMahometansof Behar, are either Brahminists or Buddhists—speaking the same Bengali dialect as the last. These are chiefly the higher classes of the population of Behar. They are Kocch in the way that the Cornishmen are Welsh. They consider themRájbansialso. Doubtless, their Hinduism is imperfect;i.e., tinctured with the original paganism.
3. The primitive, unconverted, orPaniKocch, have either not changed at all, or changed but little. They retain the original name of Kocch; which is not endured by the others. They retain their original tongue, which, according to Buchanan, has no affinity with any of the Hindú tongues. They retain their original customs; and they retain their original paganism. Lastly, Mr. Hodgson attests the "entire conformity of the physiognomy of all—with that of the other aborigines around them." He adds that he cannot improve on Buchanan's account of them, which is as follows:—"The primitive or Páni Kocch live amid the woods, frequently changing their abode in order to cultivate lands enriched by a fallow. They cultivate entirely with the hoe, and more carefully than their neighbours who use the plough, for they weed their crops, which the others[124]do not. As they keep hogs and poultry they are better fed than the Hindús, and as they make a fermented liquor from rice, their diet is more strengthening. The clothing of the Páni Kocch is made by the women, and is in general blue, dyed by themselves with their own indigo, the borders red, dyed with Morinda. The material is cotton of their own growth, and they are better clothed than the mass of the Bengalese. Their huts are at least as good, nor are they raised on posts like the houses of the Indo-Chinese, at least, not generally so. Their only arms are spears: but they use iron-shod implements of agriculture, which the Bengalese often do not. They eat swine, goats, sheep, deer, buffaloes, rhinoceros, fowls, and ducks—not beef, nor dogs, nor cats, nor frogs, nor snakes. They use tobacco and beer, but reject opium and hemp. They eat no tame animal without offering it to God (the Gods), and consider that he who is least restrained is most exalted, allowing the Gárós to be their superiors, because the Gárós may eat beef. The men are so gallant as to have made over all property to the women, who in return are most industrious, weaving, spinning, brewing, planting, sowing; in a word, doing all work not above their strength. When a woman dies the family property goes to her daughters, and when a man marries he lives with his wife's mother, obeying[125]her as his wife. Marriages are usually arranged by mothers in nonage, but consulting the destined bride. Grown up women may select a husband for themselves, and another, if the first die. A girl's marriage costs the mother ten rupees—a boy's five rupees. This sum is expended in a feast with sacrifice, which completes the ceremony. Few remain unmarried, or live long. I saw no grey hairs. Girls, who are frail, can always marry their lover. Under such rule, polygamy, concubinage, and adultery are not tolerated. The last subjects to a ruinous fine, which if not paid, the offender becomes a slave. No one can marry out of his own tribe. If he do, he is fined. Sutties are unknown, and widows always having property can pick out a new husband at discretion. The dead are kept two days, during which the family mourn, and the kindred and friends assemble and feast, dance and sing. The body is then burned by a river's side, and each person having bathed returns to his usual occupation. A funeral costs ten rupees, as several pigs must be sacrificed to the manes. This tribe has no letters; but a sort of priesthood called Déóshi, who marry and work like other people. Their office is not hereditary, and everybody employs what Déóshi he pleases, but some one always assists at every sacrifice and gets a share. The Kocch sacrifice to the sun, moon, and stars, to the gods of rivers, hills[126]and woods, and every year, at harvest-home, they offer fruits and a fowl to deceased parents, though they believe not in a future state! Their chief gods are Rishi and his wife Jágó. After the rains the whole tribe make a grand sacrifice to these gods, and occasionally also, in cases of distress. There are no images. The gods get the blood of sacrifices; their votaries, the meat. Disputes are settled among themselves by juries of Elders, the women being excluded here, however despotic at home. If a man incurs a fine, he cannot pay with purse, he must with person, becoming a bondman, on food and raiment only, unless his wife can and will redeem him."
I must now request particular attention on the part of the reader to the terms which Mr. Hodgson applies to the physical conformation of these northern, or sub-Himalayan tribes; and still closer attention must be given to his nomenclature. He calls the stock in questionTamulian. This connects it with theSouthIndian. He contrasts it with theHindú. By this he means the Brahminical elements of the Indian populations.
Let us then see what points he considers to beTamulian.
1. There is "less height, less symmetry, more dumpiness and flesh."
2. There is "a somewhat lozenge contour (of face) caused by the large cheek-bones."[127]
3. There is "less perpendicularity of features in the front—a larger proportion of face to head—a broader flatter face—a shorter wider nose, often clubbed at the end, and furnished with round nostrils."
4. There is a smaller eye, "less fully opened, and less evenly crossing the face by their line of aperture." In other words, there is theobliqueeye, so much considered in the Chinese physiognomy.
5. Lastly, there are larger ears, thicker lips, and less beard.
I submit that all these points are Mongolian; and this is what Mr. Hodgson evidently thinks also.
The whole class has passed beyond the hunter state, if ever such existed. It has passed beyond the pastoral or nomadic state also; if such existed. It is at present—and, perhaps, has always been—an agricultural state of society. On the other hand—the industrial state, the development represented by towns and commerce, has not been attained.
The whole stock is essentially agricultural. Likewise, the agriculture is peculiar. We may explain it by the termerratic. They "never cultivate the same field beyond the second year, or remain in the same village beyond the fourth to sixth year. After the lapse of four or five years they frequently return to their old fields[128]and resume their cultivation, if in the interim the jungle has grown well, and they have not been anticipated by others, for there is no pretence of appropriation other than possessory, and if, therefore, another party have preceded them, or, if the slow growth of the jungle give no sufficient promise of a good stratum of ashes for the land when cleared by fire, they move on to another site, new or old. If old, they resume the identical fields they tilled before, but never the old houses or site of the old village, that being deemed unlucky. In general, however, they prefer new land to old, and having still abundance of unbroken forest around them, they are in constant movement, more especially as, should they find a new spot prove unfertile, they decamp after the first harvest is got in."
Arva in annos mutant et superest ager.This passage is explained by their customs.
In respect to their social constitution, they dwell in small communities of from ten to forty houses; each of which community is under agràor head. This is Hindú—except that as the Hindú villages are both larger and more permanent, the functionaries, in addition to theheadman, are more numerous. This is noted, because the difference in the two sorts of village government seems to be one ofdegreerather thankind.[129]
And now comes more in the way of classification. The Bodo are Kachars, or the Kachars are Bodo. Their languages are the same, so are their gods, so is their name; since Kachar is a Hindú, and no native term—the native name (i.e., of the Kachars) beingBodo. On the other hand, theHindúname of the Bodo is Mech. Whoever looks to a map will find that the outline of the Bodo area is very deeply indented; implying either a great original irregularity of area, or great subsequent displacement.
Now follow the Garo. One fourth—fifteen out of sixty—of the words of Mr. Brown's Garo vocabulary is Bodo. The inference? That the Bodo and Garo are in the same category. What is this? Mr. Hodgson makes both Tamulian or Indian. In my own mind both are Burmese. But be this as it may, one fact is certain;viz., that a transition between the tongues of the Indian and the tongues of the Indo-Chinese peninsula exists, and that the lines of demarcation which divide them are less broad and trenchant than is generally supposed.
The Dhimal bring us to Sikkim. The dominant nation of Sikkim are—
The Lepchas.—Their language also is monosyllabic; but it is Tibetan rather than Burmese. They are a Sikkim rather than a British Indian population.[130]
When we have passed the rajahship of Sikkim, we reach that of Nepâl. This, again, is independent. Such being the case, the line of frontier between the Hindú populations and the populations of the Bodo and Garo character lies beyond the pale of the British dependencies.
But in proceeding westward, we pass Nepâl, and reach Kumaon.
This is British, and, as it extends as far north as the Himalayas, it may contain monosyllabic languages, and tribes speaking them. It may present also instances of intermixture like those which we have already found in Behar—the line of demarcation being equally difficult and undefined. Difficult and undefined it really is—because, although it is an easy matter to take a portion of the Sirmor, Gurhwal, or Kumaon population, and say, "this is Hindú because both language and creed make it so," it is by no means so easy to prove that the blood, pedigree, or descent is Hindú also. To repeat an illustration already in use—many such populations may be Hindú only as the Cornishmen are English.
Now the populations of the Tibetan stock to the west of Nepâl, so little known in detail, must be illustrated by means of our knowledge of the tribes of Nepâl and Tibet most closely related to them—by those of Nepâl on the east, and those of Tibet on the north.[131]
For neither of these areas are there any very minutedata. For the aborigines ofeasternandcentralNepâl, we have plenty of information. They are tribes speaking monosyllabic languages, and tribes in different degrees of intercourse with the Hindús; being by name—1. The Magars. 2. The Gurungs. 3. The Jariyas. 4. The Newars. 5. The Murmis. 6. The Kirata. 7. The Limbu; and 8. The Lepchas, common to the eastern boundary of Nepâl, to the western part of Butan, and to Sikkim. This, however, will not bring us far west enough for the Kumaon frontier; indeed, for the forests of Nepâlwestof the Great Valley, we have the notice of one family only—the Chepang. For this, as for so much more, we are indebted to Mr. Hodgson. It falls into three tribes; the Chepang proper, the Kusunda, and the Haju. Its language (known to us by a vocabulary) is monosyllabic; its physical conformation, that of the unmodified Indian.
So much for analogy. In the way of direct information we simply know that the Pariahs, or outcasts, of Kumaon[33]are calledDoms. These have darker skins and curlier hair than the Hindús. Are these enslaved and partially amalgamated[132]aborigines? Probably. Nay more; in the eastern part of the province, amidst the forests at the foot of the Himalayas, a community of about twenty families, pertinaciously adheres to the customs of their ancestors, resembles theDomsin looks, and is calledRawatorRaji. Though I have seen no specimen of their language, I have little doubt as to theRawatof Kumaon being the equivalents to the Chepang of Nepâl.
From Konawur we have three monosyllabic vocabularies, the Sumchu, the Theburskud, and the Milchan; but the exact amount to which the Tibetan and the Hindú populations indent each other along the western Himalayas is more than I can give.
Here end the monosyllabic tongues spoken in British India. But they fringe the Himalayas throughout, and occur in the country of Gholab Singh, as well as in the independent rajahships between the Sutlege and Cashmeer. My latest researches have carried them even further westward than Little Tibet; as far as the Kohistan, or mountain country, of Cabul—the Der, Lughmani, Tirhai, and other languages, known, wholly or chiefly, through the vocabularies of Lieutenant Leach, being essentially monosyllabic in structure, and definitely connected with the tongues of Tibet, and Nepâl in respect to their vocables.[133]
But this is episodical to the subject—a subject still requiring the notice of a very important phenomenon.
Polyandria[34]is a term in ethnology, even as it is in botany. Its meaning, however, is different. Etymologically, it denotes a form ofpolygamy.Polygamy, however, being restricted to that particular form of marriage which consists in a multiplicity ofwives,polyandriaexpresses the reverse,viz., the plurality ofhusbands.
At the first glance, the wordpolyandrialooks like a learned name for a common thing; and suggests the inquiry as to how it differs from simple promiscuity of intercourse; or, at least, how far the Tibetan wife differs from the fair frail one who was always constant to the 85th regiment. The answer is not easy. Still it is certain that some difference exists—if not in form, at least, in its effects. One of these, in certain countries wherepolyandriaprevails, is the law of succession to property. This follows the female line, rather than the male.
Again—the marriage of the widow with the surviving brother of her husband, is polyandria under another form.
What the exact polyandria of Tibet is, is uncertain. I am not prepared to deny its existence even in so extreme a form as that ofone woman[134]being married to several husbands, all alive at once. Still, I think it more likely that either the circle of community was limited to certain degrees of relationships, or else that the multiplied husbands were successive, rather than simultaneous. Still, the facts of the Tibetanpolyandriarequire further investigation.
One thing, only, is certain—viz., that as an ethnological criterion the practice is of no great value. Capable, as it has been shown to be, of modification in form, it is anything but limited to either Tibet, or the families allied to the Tibetan. It occurs in many parts of the world. It is a Malabar practice; where it is, probably, as truly Tibetan as in Tibet itself. But it is also Jewish, African, Siberian, and North American; so that nothing would more mislead us in the classification of the varieties of man than to mistake it for a phenomenonper se, and allow it to separate allied, or to connect distinct populations.
Necdum finitus Orestes.—There are several populations which, on fair grounds, have been believed to be in the same category with the Dhekra,i.e., which are Hindú in language and creed, though monosyllabic in blood. The Kudi, Batar, Kebrat, Pallah, Gangai, Maraha, Dhanak, Kichak, and Tharu, are oftener alluded to than described—though, doubtless, a better-informed investigator in such special matters than the present[135]writer could find several definite details concerning them. They seem chiefly referable to Behar and north-eastern Bengal. TheDhungers—in the same class—the husbandmen of South Behar, bring us down to the vicinity of the population next to be noticed; a population which is generally considered with reference to the nations, tribes, and families ofSouthernrather thanNorthernIndia.
The name of this family has already been mentioned. It isTamulian; and theTamulianphysiognomy has been described. It has been seen to extend as far north as the Himalayas. If so, the nations already enumerated have been Tamulian; and no new class is now approaching. This may or may not be the case. Another change, however, is more undeniable. This is that of language. It is no longer referable to the Chinese type; since separate monosyllables have, more or less perfectly, becomeagglutinatedinto inflected forms, and the speech is aspoly-syllabic as the other tongues of the world in general. As we approach the south this abandonment of the monosyllabic character increases, and from theTamullanguage spoken between Pulicat and Cape Comorin, the termTamulian—applicable in a general ethnological sense—is derived.Agglutinated(oragglutinate) is also a technical term. It means languages in the second stage of their[136]development; when words originally separate, such as adverbs of time, prepositions, and personal pronouns, have become permanently connected with the root, so as to form tenses, cases, and persons—the union of the two parts of an inflected word being still sufficiently recent and imperfect to leave their original separation and independence visible and manifest. When the incorporation or amalgamation, has become more complete; so complete, as in most cases to have obliterated all vestiges of an original independence; theagglutinatecharacter has departed, the second stage of development has been passed, and the language is in the same class with those of Greece, Rome, and Germany, rather than in that of the tongues in question, and of many others.
To return, however, to theTamulianfamily, meaning thereby a branch of the great Mongolian stock, speaking,either now or formerly, a language more or less allied to the Tamul of the Dekhan.
The first members of the class, as we proceed southwards from Behar, are certain hill-tribes of the Rajmahali Mountains—the Rajmahali mountaineers. Their Mongolian physiognomy is unequivocal;—a Mongolian physiognomy but conjoined with a dark skin. They have "broad faces, small eyes, and flattish or rather turned-up[137]noses. Their lips are thicker than those of the inhabitants of the plain."[35]
The flattened nose reminded the writer of the Negro, and the general character of the features of the Chinese or Malay; though it is added that the resemblance is in a great degree lost on closer inspection. At the same time it has been sufficiently recognized to have originated the hypothesis of a descent from one of those nations as a means of accounting for it.
With a slight tincture of Brahminic Hinduism, the Rajmahali mountaineers are Pagans.Bedois one of their gods; doubtless thePotteangof the Kuki, and theBathoof the Bodo.Gosaik, too, is either the name of a god, or a holy epithet; this, also, being a mythological term current amongst many other tribes of India. Other elements in their imperfectly-known mythology deserve notice. Their priesthood contains bothDemaunsandDewassis; the latter form being the BodoDeoshi. As the names are alike, so are the functions. TheDewassiis an oracular seer. When he vouchsafes to give answers, his inspiration takes the form of frenzy—but he neither hurts nor speaks to any one. He makes signs for a cock, and for a hen's egg as well. The cock's head he wrenches off, and sucks the bleeding neck. The egg he eats. After this he seeks the[138]solitude of the wood or stream; and is fed by the deity. Sometimes he has ridden a snake; sometimes put his hands in the mouth of a tiger with impunity. Trees too large to move, or too thorny to touch, he places on the roofs of houses. He sees Bedo Gosaik in visions; and, in the sacrifices therein enjoined, red paint, rice, and pigeons make a part. From the touch of women he abstains; so he does from the taste of flesh. Either would make his prophecies false.
There are also certain sacrifices that theMaungy(chief?) of each village makes, and in which threads of red silk play a part.
One of their gods—an elemental one—is the god of rain, and the dangers of a drought are averted by praying to him. A ceremony called theSatanedetermines the chief who takes the office of invoker.
A black stone, calledRuxy, is much of the same sort of fetish with these mountaineers as the Sij with the Bodo. The name, too, RuxyNad, suggests the Nat worship of the Silong, Kariens, and others.
The northern half of the Tamulian families are, like the Welsh, the Cornish, and the Bretons of France, members of the same ethnological group, but not in geographical contact with each other. Or, rather, they are, like the Celtic population of Wales and the Scottish Highlands, cut[139]off from one another by a vast tract of intervening Anglo-Saxons. Yet the time was when all was Celtic, from Cape Wrath to the Land's End; and when the original population extended, in its full integrity, over York and Nottingham, as well as over Merioneth and Argyleshire. And so it is with the populations in question. They stand apart from each other, like islands in an ocean; the intervening spaces being filled up by Hindús. At the same time the isolation has been much overvalued, and, I imagine that when greater attention shall have been bestowed upon this important subject, connecting links which have hitherto been unnoticed will be detected.
The next locality where we find a population akin to the Rajmahali mountaineers, is the mountain system of Orissa. These are called by the HindúsKóls(Coolies),KhondsandSúrs. Such, however, are no native designations—no more than the classical termBarbarian, or the English wordTartar. The people themselves have no collective name; but, being divided into tribes, have a separate one for each.
I say that this branch of Tamulians is isolated, because I am not able to show its continuity; the range of hill-country which gives rise to the rivers between the Ganges and Mahanuddy being but imperfectly known.
In Orissa, the most northern of the hill-tribes[140]are the Kól of Cuttack. South of these come the Khonds best studied in the neighbourhood of Goomsoor. The following is a list of their gods, and asnseems to stand ford,Pennuis but another name forBedo, andGossa PennuforBedo Gosaik:—
1. BeraPennu, or the earth god.2. BellaPennu, the sun god, and DanzuPennu, the moon god.3. SandhiPennu, the god of limits.4. LohaPennu, the iron god, or god of arms.5. JugahPennu, the god of small-pox.6. MadzuPennu, or the village deity, the universalgenius loci.7. SoroPennu, the hill god.8. JoriPennu, the god of streams.9. GossaPennu, the forest god.10. MundaPennu, the tank god.11. SuguPennu, or SidrujaPennu, the god of fountains.12. PidzuPennu, the god of rain.13. PilamuPennu, the god of hunting.14. The god of births.[36]
1. BeraPennu, or the earth god.
2. BellaPennu, the sun god, and DanzuPennu, the moon god.
3. SandhiPennu, the god of limits.
4. LohaPennu, the iron god, or god of arms.
5. JugahPennu, the god of small-pox.
6. MadzuPennu, or the village deity, the universalgenius loci.
7. SoroPennu, the hill god.
8. JoriPennu, the god of streams.
9. GossaPennu, the forest god.
10. MundaPennu, the tank god.
11. SuguPennu, or SidrujaPennu, the god of fountains.
12. PidzuPennu, the god of rain.
13. PilamuPennu, the god of hunting.
14. The god of births.[36]
The most southern of the Orissa hill-tribes are theSúr; connected by language with the preceding tribes; as they were with each other and the Rajmahali mountaineers.[141]
These stand in remarkable contrast with the rest of the population of Orissa; whose language is the Udiya, a tongue which, according to many, belongs to a wholly different class, or, at least, to a different division of the present.
South of Chicacole, however, the Tamul tongues are spoken continuously. I cannot say where the southern limits of the Súr population come in contact with the northern ones of the—
Chenchwars—who occupy the same range of mountains, in the parts between the rivers Kistna and Pennar, and, probably, extending as far south as the neighbourhood of Madras. Their language is the Telugu, the language of the parts around, and of Tamul origin.[37]The contrast between the Chenchwars of the hills, and the Telingas of the lower country lies in their mythologies; the former retaining much of the original creed of their country, the latter being Brahminists.
Below Madras, the mountain range changes its direction, and the next locality under notice is the Neilgherry hills.
The families here are—
1.The Cohatars—so little Indianized as to eat of the flesh of the cow, amounting to about two thousand in number, and occupants of the highest part of the range.[142]
2.The Tudas.—An interesting monograph by Captain Harkness has drawn unusual attention to these mountaineers, the chief points of importance being the comparative absence of all elements of Brahminism, and the occurrence in their physiognomy of the most favourable points of Hindú beauty—regular and delicate features, oval face, and a clear brunette skin. Free from the other religious and social characteristics of Hinduism as the Tudas may be, they still admit a sort of caste;e.g., whilst thePeiki, orToralli, may perform any function, theKuta, orTardas, are limited. Neither did they always intermarry, though they do now; their offspring being calledMookh, ordescendants.
3.The Curumbas, called by the TudasCurbs, inhabit a lower level than the preceding populations, but a higher one than—
4.The Erularsat the foot of the hills; falling into two divisions—a, theUrali(a name to be noticed), andb, theCurutali.
Between the Neilgherries and Cape Comorin, the hill-tribes are worth enumerating, if only for the sake of showing their complexity. According to Lieutenant Conner in the "Madras Journal," they are—1, Cowders; 2, Vaishvans; 3, Múdavenmars; 4, Arreamars, or Vailamers; 5, Ural-Uays. Besides these, there is a population of predial slaves, divided and subdivided.[143]
To return to the Neilgherries, and follow the western Ghauts upwards, a population more numerous than any hitherto mentioned is that of the—
Buddugurs, called alsoMarvés. This name takes so many forms thatBerdarmay be one of them. One division of Buddugurs is calledLingait.
I cannot follow the Ghauts consecutively; however, when we reach the southern portion of the Mahratta country, we find in the rajahship of Satarah, two predatory tribes:—
The Berdars, supposed to be closely allied to Ramusi. The—
Ramusithemselves connected by tradition and creed, with theLingaitBuddugurs. But not by language; or at any rate not wholly so. The Ramusi dialect is a mixture of Tulava and Marathi—the former being undoubted Tamul, but the latter in the same category with the Udiya.[144]
The continuous Tamul languages are now left to the south of us, and the hill-tribes next in order, will have unlearnt their native tongues, and be found speaking the Hindú dialects of the countries around them. Hence, the evidence of their Tamulian descent will be less conclusive.
Warali of the Konkan.—Mountaineers of the northern Konkan. We have seen this name twice already, and we shall see it again. The evidence of their Tamulian extraction is imperfect. Their language is Marathi and their creed an imperfect Brahminism. Their mountaineer habits separate them from—
The Katodi—outcasts, who take their name from preparing thekat, orcat-echu, and who hang about the villages of theplains.
The Kúli.—From Poonah to Gujerat, the occupants of the range of mountains parallel to the coast are calledKúli(Coolies), the same in the eyes of the Hindús of the western coast, as theKólwere in those of the Bengalese and Orissans; and similarly named. Their language is generally (perhaps always) that of the country around them,viz., Marathi amongst the Mahrattas, and Gujerathi in Gujerat. However, difference of habits and creed sufficiently separate them from the Hindús.
The Bhils.—These are generally associated with the Kúlis; from whom they chiefly differ geographically,[145]belonging, as they do to the transverse ranges—the Satpura and Vindhia mountains—rather than to the main line of the Ghauts with its due north-and-south direction, and with its parallelism to the coast.
The Paurias.—Hill-tribes in Candeish, belonging to the Satpura range, and conterminous with the Bhil tribes, and with—
The Wurali of the Satpura range.—The Wurali re-appear for the fourth time. In the parts in question they are in contact with the Bhils and Paurias; from whom they keep themselves distinct; and from whom they differ in dialect. Still their language is Marathi. Pre-eminent as they are for their Paganism, their country contains ruins of brick buildings, and considerable excavations.[38]
These three are the hill-tribes of the water-shed of the rivers Tapti and Nerbudda. The water-system of the south-western feeders of the Ganges is more complex. Along the mountains between Candeish and Jeypur come—
CertainBhiltribes.
The Mewars—under the Grasya chiefs of Joora, Meerpoor, Oguna, and Panurwa. The political relations of these tribes—in some cases of an undetermined nature—are with the Rajpút governments;[146]in other words, we are now amongst the aborigines of Rajasthan.
The Minas.—These, like the Mewars, are in geographical contact with certain Bhil tribes; in political contact with the Rajpúts—the Mewars with those of Udipúr; the Minas with those of Ajmer, Jeypur, and Kota.
The Moghis.—At present, a free company rather than a population; although the representatives of what was once one—viz., the aborigines of Jodpure. So little Brahminists are they that they eat of the flesh of the jackal and the cow, and indulge freely in fermented drinks.
The hills that separate Malwah from the Haroti country, and from the south-eastern boundary of the valley of the River Chumbul are occupied by—
The Saireas.—This is a name which has occurred before and elsewhere;[39]and is almost certainly, anything but native. Tribes, under this name, extend into Bundelcund.[40]
The Goands.—The central parts between Candeish and Orissa, the head-waters of the Nerbudda and Tapti on the west, and of the Godavery on the east, still require notice. Here the hill population is at itsmaximum, both in point of numbers and characteristics; and theKhondforms[147]of the Tamul re-appear under the nameGoand. Of these we have specimens from—
a.The Gawhilghur mountains near Ellichpoor.
b.Chupprah.
c.Mundala inGundwana, or theGoandcountry.
Such are the chief hill-populations; which, although they belong to Tamulian stock, differ as to the extent to which they carry outward and visible signs of their origin. Some, like the Rajmahali, are merely separated geographically; and, perhaps, not even that. Others, like the Khonds of Orissa, are contrasted with the Tamuls of the south, by their inferior and social condition, and their non-Brahminical creeds. The Minas and Bhils differ in language; whilst the Ramusis and Berdars, probably, exhibit transitional forms of speech. The Tudas and Chenchwars surrounded by Telingas and Tamuls, as the Khonds and Goands are by Udiyas and Mahrattas, are merely the population of the parts around them with a primitive polity and religion.
Theletteredlanguages of the Dekhan, where the Tamul character is unequivocal, but where the civilizational influences have chiefly been Hindú, are spoken in continuity from Chicacole, east, and the parts about Goa, west, to Cape Comorin,i.e., in the Madras Presidency, and in the countries of Mysore, Travancore, and the coasts of Malabar[148]and Coromandel. Of these, the most northern—beginning on the eastern coast—is—
The Telinga or Telugu.—Spoken from the parts about Chicacole to Pulicat, where it is succeeded by—
The Tamul Proper.—The language of the Coromandel coast and the parts of the interior as far as Coimbatore. Each of these tongues has a double form, one for literature, and one for common use; the former being called the High, the latter the Low, Tamul or Telugu, as the case may be, and the creed which it embodies being either Brahminism, or some modification of it.
In Travancore and on the Malabar coast the language is—
The MalayalmaorMalayalam—and in the greater part of Mysore—
The Kanara—which, like the Tamul and Telinga, is both High and Low—literary or vulgar.
Amongst these four well-known forms of the South Tamulian tongue, may be distributed several dialects and sub-dialects. Such as the Tulava for the parts between Goa and Mangalore, and the Coorgi of the Rajahship of Coorg, not to mention the several varieties in the language of the hill-tribes.
Now all the populations of the present chapter agree in this particular—their language is generally[149]admitted to be Tamulian at the present moment, or if not, to have been so at some earlier period. With the languages next under notice, the original Tamulian character is not so admitted—indeed, it is so far denied as to make the affirmation of it partake of the nature of paradox.
The distinction then is raised on the existence of the doubt in question, or rather on the differences that such a doubt implies. Hence the division of the languages of India into the Hindú and the Tamulian is practical rather than scientific—theHindúmeaning those for which aSanskrit, rather than aTamulaffinity is claimed.
Sanskritis the name of a language; a name upon which nine-tenths of the controversial points in Indian ethnology and in Indian history turn.