INTKODUCTOKY. 11 



taneously from the north and from the west. Nor were they 

 long in extending into the fat lands of the great valleys in 

 the territories of the Gond princes. The reclamation of the 

 heavy lands of the Narbada valley, and the country now 

 known as the Berars, had probably been entirely beyond the 

 resources of the aboriginal races. The immigrants brought 

 with them the necessary energy and the necessary resources ; 

 and from this time a process commenced which resulted in 

 the wholesale deprivation of the indigenous races of their birth- 

 right in the richest portions of their country, and the establish- 

 ment therein of the arts of agriculture and commerce. 



The Gonds retired to the higher plateaux and slopes of the 

 central hills, where their hunting instincts, and rude system 

 of raising the coarse grains on which they subsist, could still 

 find scope ; the more extensive plateaux were also soon 

 invaded by the aggressive race, and their level black soils 

 covered with crops of wheat 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 interpene- 

 trated by large bodies of Hindiis. 



The Brahman priest accompanied the warlike Kajpiit and 

 the industrious Hindu peasant to their new country ; and 

 brought with him the worship of the Hindi! 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 



