September 22, 19 10] 



NATURE 



565 



'IHE CASTES AXD TRIBES OF SOUTHERN 

 IXDIA.' 



npHIS, if not quite tiie most worlvinanlike, may 

 -'■ justly claim to be the most voluminous contri- 

 bution to the publications of the Ethnographical Sur- 

 vey of India. The facts for which Mr. Thurston is 

 personally responsible were collected in a series of 

 tours throughout the Madras Presidency, in which 

 he was able to combine the collection of specimens 

 for the museum under his charge with a considerable 

 xmtount of original work. He gives a lively account 

 i)f the difificulties which he experienced in examining 

 and measuring the shy jungle folk in whom he was 

 most deeply interested ; and the combined tact and 

 enthusiasm with which he conducted these in- 

 quiries deserve hearty recognition. With his own 

 personal investigations he has combined contributions 

 from other writers, among whom the work of Mr. 

 F. Favvcett, much of which is already familiar to 

 students of the periodical bulletins of the Madras 

 Museum, is the most valuable. To these have been 

 added numerous extracts from census reports, district 

 manuals, and similar literature; and the large series 

 of excellent photographs adds largely to the interest 

 .and value of the work. 



It is. however, to be regretted that, apparentlv 

 from pressure of other duties, Mr. Thurston has been 

 unable to arrange this great mass of material in a 

 form suited to the needs of students. The articles 

 contain much undigested material, and little has been 

 done to classify this in a series of well-ordered para- 

 graphs, each provided with a marginal heading, and 

 bringing together the accounts of tribal organisation, 

 domestic ceremonies, religious beliefs, and the like. 

 It is obvious that the bulk of the work might have 

 been much reduced by judicious compression ; and, as 

 native States like Mysore and Cochin are engaged in 

 ethnographical survevs of their own population, it was 

 unnecessary to give more than references to their pre- 

 liminary bulletins. There is nothing in the shape of 

 a subject-index ; and though a good start was made 

 bv Mr. W. Francis in his report on the census of 

 iiioi to compile a bibliography of the literature of 

 the subject, Mr. Thurston has done nothing to sup- 

 plement it. A protest must also be made against the 

 liabit of the writer, which has already greatlv impaired 

 the value of his useful "Ethnographic Notes on 

 Southern India," published four years ago, of giving 

 in the notes merely the names of his authorities 

 without precise references. This gives a slovenlv 

 appearance to the worlc which it otherwise does not 

 deserve. 



We might also have expected from the author an 

 exposition of his views on the prehistoric ethnologv 

 of the province. The Dravidian question is alwavs 

 with us, and though he supplies some facts which 

 may assist in its solution, his personal views on the 

 subject are nowhere definitely stated; and he seems 

 to have abandoned in despair any attempt to indicate 

 how far the existing jungle tribes are related to that 

 remarkable people who reared the great series of 

 megalithic monuments which abound on the Niltriri 

 plateau, the relics from which, excavated by Mr. 

 Iireeks and others, form the most interesting collec- 

 tion in the museum under his charge. Two important 

 f.TCts, however, can be gathered from his notes on 

 the physical characteristics of the people; first, that 

 the primitive Negrito element is not so widely distri- 

 buted as some authorities have assumed. It is not 



"The Cistesand Trihei of Sout'fi-rn India " By Edgar Thurston, assisted 

 I'V K. Rangachari Vol. i., A and B Pj. K-jtMi + jg;. Vol. ii., C— I. 

 Pp 501. Vol. iii., K. Pp. soo. Vol. iv. K— M. Pp.501. Vol. v^. M-P. 

 Pp.487. Vol. vi., P-S Pp. 4;3. Vol vii., T— Z Pp. 4m- (Madras: 

 Government Press. 1909.) 



NO. 2I.-?4.. VOL. 84I 



apparent among the Kotas and Badagas, who seem 

 to be later immigrants into the hill country from the 

 plains, and it is found only among the more primitive 

 tribes, like the Irulas and Kurumbas. Even among 

 them it is important to note that prognathism and 

 wooliness of hair appear as aberrant characters. In 

 the second place, when we speak of the Dravidian 

 head form, we must remember that it is not con- 

 sistently uniform throughout the Presidency. What- 

 ever may be the causes of this variance of type — the 

 influence of environment or miscegenation — about 

 which Mr. Thurston, with his characteristic caution, 

 declines to express an opinion, it is certain that the 

 type in the northern district is subbrachycephalic or 

 mesaticephalic, while it is only in the Tamil and 

 Malayalim countries that we find it to be dolicho- or 

 subdolicho-cephalic. 



The chief interest in the ethnography of southern 

 India lies in the startling variances of culture which 

 appear throughout the population. For an example 

 of what is apparently the lowest type, we may turn 

 to the Yanadis, a dark-skinned, platyrhine, under- 



sized tribe inhabiting the Telugu country. Their 

 religion is a crude form of animism; they make fire 

 by friction ; eat their food almost raw, merely scorch- 

 ing or warming the flesh of the animals which they 

 kill ; and yet, with the curious inconsistency which 

 pervades the Hindu social system, they are regarded 

 by the higher classes as gentlemen of the forest, are 

 allowed to draw water from wells used by high-caste 

 people, and may carry it to Brahmans. In direct 

 contrast to them we may refer to the Nayadis, a 

 tribe in the plains little higher in culture than the 

 Yanadis, who live by collecting jungle products, and 

 are regarded as so impure that in their begging rounds 

 thev are compelled to stand at a distance from 

 respectable houses, and to make their appeals for 

 charitv in stentorian tones. 



A. higher tvne of culture is reached in the Badagas, 

 the agriculturists of the hills, where the pastoral 

 element is represented by the Todas, and the industrial 



