Chapter III (2)

At the first glance, the word _polyandria_ looks 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 where _polyandria_ prevails, 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 of _one woman 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 Tibetan _polyandria_ require 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 phenomenon _per 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 writer could find several definite details concerning them. They seem chiefly referable to Behar and north-eastern Bengal. The _Dhungers_--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 of _Southern_ rather than _Northern_ India.

The name of this family has already been mentioned. It is _Tamulian_; and the _Tamulian_ physiognomy 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, become _agglutinated_ into inflected forms, and the speech is as _poly_-syllabic as the other tongues of the world in general. As we approach the south this abandonment of the monosyllabic character increases, and from the _Tamul_ language spoken between Pulicat and Cape Comorin, the term _Tamulian_--applicable in a general ethnological sense--is derived. _Agglutinated_ (or _agglutinate_) is also a technical term. It means languages in the second stage of their 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; the _agglutinate_ character 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 the _Tamulian_ family, 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 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. _Bedo_ is one of their gods; doubtless the _Potteang_ of the Kuki, and the _Batho_ of 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 both _Demauns_ and _Dewassis_; the latter form being the Bodo _Deoshi_. As the names are alike, so are the functions. The _Dewassi_ is 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 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 the _Maungy_ (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 the _Satane_ determines the chief who takes the office of invoker.

A black stone, called _Ruxy_, is much of the same sort of fetish with these mountaineers as the Sij with the Bodo. The name, too, Ruxy _Nad_, 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 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 Hindús _Kóls_ (_Coolies_), _Khonds_ and _Súrs_. Such, however, are no native designations--no more than the classical term _Barbarian_, or the English word _Tartar_. 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 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 as _n_ seems to stand for _d_, _Pennu_ is but another name for _Bedo_, and _Gossa Pennu_ for _Bedo Gosaik_:--

1. Bera _Pennu_, or the earth god.
2. Bella _Pennu_, the sun god, and Danzu _Pennu_, the moon god.
3. Sandhi _Pennu_, the god of limits.
4. Loha _Pennu_, the iron god, or god of arms.
5. Jugah _Pennu_, the god of small-pox.
6. Madzu _Pennu_, or the village deity, the universal _genius loci_.
7. Soro _Pennu_, the hill god.
8. Jori _Pennu_, the god of streams.
9. Gossa _Pennu_, the forest god.
10. Munda _Pennu_, the tank god.
11. Sugu _Pennu_, or Sidruja _Pennu_, the god of fountains.
12. Pidzu _Pennu_, the god of rain.
13. Pilamu _Pennu_, the god of hunting.
14. The god of births.[36]

The most southern of the Orissa hill-tribes are the _Súr_; connected by language with the preceding tribes; as they were with each other and the Rajmahali mountaineers.

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.

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 the _Peiki_, or _Toralli_, may perform any function, the _Kuta_, or _Tardas_, are limited. Neither did they always intermarry, though they do now; their offspring being called _Mookh_, or _descendants_.

3. _The Curumbas_, called by the Tudas _Curbs_, inhabit a lower level than the preceding populations, but a higher one than--

4. _The Erulars_ at the foot of the hills; falling into two divisions--_a_, the _Urali_ (a name to be noticed), and _b_, the _Curutali_.

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.

1. Vaituvan, Konaken.
2. Polayers--
_a._ Vulluva.
_b._ Kunnaka.
_c._ Morny Pulayer.
3. Pariahs.
4. Vaidurs.
5. Ulanders and Naiadi.

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 also _Marvés_. This name takes so many forms that _Berdar_ may be one of them. One division of Buddugurs is called _Lingait_.

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--

_Ramusi_ themselves connected by tradition and creed, with the _Lingait_ Buddugurs. 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.

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 the _kat_, or _cat-echu_, and who hang about the villages of the _plains_.

_The Kúli._--From Poonah to Gujerat, the occupants of the range of mountains parallel to the coast are called _Kúli_ (_Coolies_), the same in the eyes of the Hindús of the western coast, as the _Kól_ were 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, 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--

Certain _Bhil_ tribes.

_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; 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 its _maximum_, both in point of numbers and characteristics; and the _Khond_ forms of the Tamul re-appear under the name _Goand_. Of these we have specimens from--

_a._ The Gawhilghur mountains near Ellichpoor.

_b._ Chupprah.

_c._ Mundala in _Gundwana_, or the _Goand_ country.

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.

The _lettered_ languages 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 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 Malayalma_ or _Malayalam_--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 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--the _Hindú_ meaning those for which a _Sanskrit_, rather than a _Tamul_ affinity is claimed.

_Sanskrit_ is the name of a language; a name upon which nine-tenths of the controversial points in Indian ethnology and in Indian history turn.

FOOTNOTES:

[22] "Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal," vol. viii.

[23] "Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Bengal," vol. vi. part 2. See also pp. 112, 113 of the present volume.

[24] Described by Lieutenants Phayre and Latter in "Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal."

[25] Dr. Helfer, "Asiatic Society of Bengal," vol. viii.

[26] "Asiatic Researches," vol. v.

[27] Dr. Buchanan, "Asiatic Researches," vol. v.

[28] Macrae in "Asiatic Researches," vol. vii.

[29] Eliot, in "Asiatic Transactions," vol. iii.

[30] Eliot, _ut supra_.

[31] For Jan. 1849.

[32] "Transactions of the British Association for the Advancement of Science," 1844.

[33] "Statistical Sketch of Kumaon," by G. W. Traill, Asiatic Researches, vol. xvi.

[34] From the Greek _polys_=_many_, and _anær_=_man_.

[35] Eliot in "Asiatic Researches," vol. iv.

[36] Captain S. C. Macpherson, "Journal of the Asiatic Society," vol. xiii.

[37] See Lieut. Newbold, "Journal of the Asiatic Society," vol. viii.

[38] Lieut. C. P. Rigby, in "Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society," May to August 1850.

[39] The Soars of Orissa.

[40] Col. Todd, "Travels in Western India."