152 REPORT—1857. 
gols who subsequently penetrated into the country, and their strict separation and 
nomenclature was enjoined and sanctioned by religion. As soon asa caste contained 
a considerable number of members, these intermarried almost exclusively amongst 
themselves alone, and followed a mode of life which was very different not only from 
that of the other groups, but sometimes even from that of their allied tribes. The 
altered mode of life continued for centuries, and the strict separation from the other 
castes have exerted so essential an influence upon the physical character and deve~ 
lopment, that at the present day castes which, ethnographically considered, belong 
to one and the same group, have become so essentially different, which was not the 
case at first, that it is often impossible, without tracing the historical formation of 
the castes, to determine with certainty the degree of their connexion from their 
physical characters alone. - 
As one of the most strongly marked examples of the influence which the mode of 
life exerts upon the physical development, we may refer to the three principal divi- 
sions of the Brahmins:—the Cashmiri Brahmins, who eat flesh; the Kannanj 
Brahmins, who live upon vegetable food ; and the Bengali Brahmins, who enjoy the 
privilege of having an unlimited number of wives, even from the lower castes. The 
Cashmiri Brahmins are of powerful frames, have pale faces even when they have 
lived for generations in India, and are very intelligent and active. [Many of their 
colonies still occur in Delhi and Lucknow; some also in Nepaul.] 
The Kannanj are weak, destitute of all physical and mental energy, and have a 
peculiar formation of the head. 
The Bengali Brahmins are ambitious and intellectual, but not unfrequently distin- 
guished from the others by the want of an upright and open character. 
As among the Brahmins, great differences have often formed nearly related castes 
in the other groups also. 
I may mention, as a peculiarly characteristic example, the three nearly related 
castes of the Mehtars, Dhobis and Tsamars, belonging to the group of the Sudras, 
which are now most clearly distinguished both in the formation of the face and the 
structure of the body. 
3. The Mohammedan Mongols are to be regarded as the third principal race of the 
inhabitants of India; they have penetrated into India from the Asiatic countries 
bounding India to the north-west, over the Hindoo Coosh and through Affghanistan. 
In their religion they were Mohammedan, perhaps divided into various sects, but at 
all events free from the prejudices of the Indian castes. As soon as they had mixed 
themselves with the Indian tribes, their descendants, in accordance with the Indian 
ideas in general, were raised into a new caste, and now all Mohammedans are 
universally divided into castes, to which they hold strictly, although these are neither 
founded in their religion, nor in the institutions of the countries from whch they 
came as conquerors. ‘The Mohammedans in India fall into the following castes :— 
Moghuls, Pashans, Sayyads, Shaiks. 
Simultaneously with the intermixture of the various peoples hitherto referred to, 
a new language, the Hindostani, was also formed, containing elements from all their 
languages, especially from the Sanscrit dialects, the Arabic and Persian. This has 
assisted essentially, so far as it has been diffused, in softening the original separation 
of tribes still speaking differently, such as exists in America, into the slighter di- 
stinction of castes speaking the same language. In those parts where Hindostani 
has not been diffused, for example in the mountains of Central and Southern India, 
in the mountains which separate the valleys of the Brahmaputra and Irawaddy and 
in the parts of the eastern Himalaya inhabited by Mongols, the difference of lan- 
guage has given the diversity of races a very different and far more definite type; in 
these places even small tribes have been developed, who cannot understand one 
another’s language, and are also distinguished far more strongly both physically 
and in their religious and political code, than the corresponding castes of the same 
physical relationship who speak Hindostani. 
4. The Buddhist Mongols constitute the fourth principal class. This class includes 
a great number of tribes, of which I may cite the following as the principal. In the 
eastern Himalaya, in Bhutan and Sikkim, the Bhutias and Lepchas predominate. In 
the northernmost, and at the same time highest parts of Nepal also, there are many 
Mongol tribes on this side of the water-separation of Tibet. In the Western Himalaya 
