334 Major-General John Briggs on the 



The Hindu race introduced into India municipal institu- 

 tions wherever they formed townships. To each of these 

 were attached a certain number of families of the aboriginal 

 tribes, as villains or prsedial servants of the community. The 

 Hindus brought with them also the Sanscrit language, not 

 in its present highly refined state, but as a colloquial tongue. 

 Hence it comes that the language of the aborigines has in 

 many parts gradually disappeared. 



The historical as well as the religious works of the Hindus, 

 of a comparatively modern date, together with monumental re- 

 mains existing in sculptured edifices and rock caves, all tend 

 to show that no portion of the peninsula of India was sub- 

 dued by them anterior to the fifth century of the Christian 

 era. About that time it is supposed that the peninsula be- 

 came gradually overspread by the Bramanical race. They 

 seem to have entered in two directions ; the one from Guze- 

 rat, gradually extending over Khandeish and Berar, till they 

 reached to the forests which fringe the banks of the river 

 Wurda, where it meets with the Godavery ; the other inva- 

 sion, according to tradition, occurred about the same time. 

 It passed from the valley of the Ganges, and penetrated 

 southward along the line of coast of the Bay of Bengal, keep- 

 ing within the range of mountains on the east and the ocean, 

 till after reaching the embouchures of the Godavery and the 

 Kistna, the invaders spread out over the plain, and proceeded 

 southward. It has been assumed that about the same period, 

 the Bhudists, a peculiar sect of Hindus, reached the shores 

 of Ceylon and Southern India from the opposite coast, and 

 thence proceeding northward, spread their religious doctrines 

 among the aborigines. About the ninth or tenth century, 

 the Bhudists and Bramans appear to have met from opposite 

 directions, which led to deadly conflicts, and ended in the 

 Bramans putting down the Bhudist tenets. 



We have historical proof that the island of Bombay was 

 not subjugated to the Hindu rule till the fourteenth century : 

 and that in the beginning of the next century the Mahomme- 

 dans found princes of the aboriginal race occupying in force 

 several strongholds not far from Poena. The town and dis- 

 trict of Sorapoor, lying between Hydrabad and the western 



