96 ON THE SANTHALS 



Bengal, Calcutta, 1872) divides the aboriginal, non-Aryan 

 tribes of Bengal into two great sections : (1) the Dravid- 

 ian, who speak a language allied to the Tamulian, and 

 (2) the Kolarian, whose language is like that of the San- 

 thals, Munclas, etc., the latter coming as he believes from a 

 remote northeastern region, and many of them now Hin- 

 duized. This would place the Dravidians in the south, 

 and the Kolarians in the north of India, but many are of 

 opinion that they were originally the same stock, separated 

 by invading races, and modified in language, characteris- 

 tics, and customs by admixture with other tribes and dif- 

 ferent surroundings; in this view the Santhals may have 

 belonged to the Kharwar stock, which has become much 

 Hinduized, and to which they are related even now by 

 physical characters and customs, and yet be also related, 

 more remotely in time, to the southern Dravidians. 



They dwell in the northeast corner of Bengal, among 

 the Vindhya mountains, and their country is called San- 

 thalistan. The river Ganges flows around its eastern por- 

 tion, and the city of Calcutta is about one hundred and 

 thirty-five miles to the southeast of their present central 

 home ; two railroads pass through the country, yet from 

 their hilly position, they are quite outside the limits of 

 European civilization. 



They occur sometimes in considerable numbers, but usu- 

 ally in small communities, in a strip of Bengal extending 

 about 350 miles from the Ganges to the Baitarni, the Hin- 

 doo Styx, bisected by the meridian of Bhagalpur, or 87° 

 E. long, and 23° to 2,5° N. lat. In the present Santhalis- 

 tan, their chief centre, are now over 200,000, and their 

 total population is at least three millions. The Damuda 

 river, highly venerated by the Santhals, empties into the 

 Hoogly, or west branch of the Ganges, not far from Cal- 

 cutta. 



