12 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL IXDLV. 



and cotton. These elevated plains are surrounded by 

 belts of rugged, unculturable country, which remained 

 in the possession of the aborigines ; and thus, ere long, 

 the tribes were not only surrounded but interpenetrated 

 by large bodies of Hindus. 



The Brahman priest accompanied the warlike Rajput 

 and the industrious Hindu peasant to their new country ; 

 and brought with him the worship of the Hindu gods 

 and the institution of caste. No separation from the 

 holy mysteries of his faith was demanded from the 

 immigrant. Not only was he persuaded that he was 

 still under the protection of the old gods ; but the gods 

 themselves, and all their belongings, were bodily borne 

 into exile along with their votaries. New scriptures 

 were revealed, in which the religious myths of the race 

 were transplanted wholesale, and fitted to local names 

 and places. The Narbada became more holy as a river 

 than the Ganges. The mountain of Kailas, the fabled 

 heaven of Siva beyond the snows of the Himalaya, 

 jutted to heaven in the peaks of the Mahadeo range. 

 Krishna and Eiima passed their miraculous boyhood, 

 and achieved their legendary feats, in these central 

 forests, instead of in the groves of JMathura and the 

 Avilderness of Bindraban. Some remarks will be oflfered 

 in another place on the social and religious influence of 

 this contact with Hinduism of the aboriginal races who 

 retired before the invaders. A few remained in the 

 country occupied by the Hindus, chiefly in the position 

 of agricultural serfs, of watchers of the villages against 

 the inroads of their wilder brethren oi- of wild beasts, of 

 hewers of wood, prevented only by the rules of caste 

 from being also their drawers of water. A social status 

 was assiorned them below that of all but the outcasts of 



