CHAPTER IV. 



THE ABORIGINAL TRIBES. 



Something has already been said regarding the inter- 

 mixture of Hindu blood, manners, and religion, that has 

 taken place among the aboriginal races of Central India. 

 Were this an isolated event in the ethnical history of 

 the country it would possess a comparatively feeble 

 interest. Its high importance lies in its furnishing us 

 with a living example of a process which has, as already 

 suggested, played an important part in the development 

 of the races which compose the mass of modern 

 Hinduism. It is the uppermost and most accessible 

 stratum of a geological series of untold antiquity ; and, 

 as the geologist interprets ancient formations by the 

 analogy of the processes he sees still going on around 

 him, so it may be that some light may be thrown on 

 the construction of modern Hinduism by the process 

 of transformation which is here going on before our 

 eyes. 



It is difficult to say hovv' far the actual admixture of 

 blood has taken place. There is small room for doubt 

 that the so-called Gond Eajas of pre-Mahomedan times 

 were nearly, or quite, pure Hindu Rajputs, exercising 

 a feudal authority over numerous petty chiefs of mixed 



