THE NAEBADA valley 41 



and among whom are included the remnants of wild tribes 

 still found in the hills. But it needs but little observation 

 of these Hindu races to perceive that they themselves 

 have long been subjected to some influence which has 

 greatly modified the original high Aryan type — a type 

 which includes the noblest races of mankind ; the Caucasian 

 of Europe, the Persian of high Asia, and the Sanscrit- 

 speaking " fair-skinned " people who entered India from 

 the north uncalculated ages ago. That influence cannot 

 have been one of climate only, which would have affected 

 all their descendants equally; whereas we see existing 

 the greatest range of diversity, from the light-coloured, 

 noble-featured Brahman of the extreme north-west to the 

 black and negro-like chamar or pariah of the east and 

 south. Everything shows that the cause has been a 

 mingUng of the immigrant race with the inferior Tauranian 

 tribes whom they found occupying the soil before them. 

 To judge from physical appearance, few but the highest 

 castes of Northern India can have any claim to purity 

 of Aryan blood ; and the admixture of indigenous blood, 

 as indicated by colour and feature, appears to be greater 

 and greater the further we proceed from the seat of the 

 original Aryan settlements in the north-west. It can 

 scarcely be doubted, then, that the modern Hindiis are 

 a composite race, resulting from the absorption of a wave 

 of Aryanism in a great ocean of peoples of a far inferior 

 type — ^the type, in fact, represented by such of them as 

 have still remained undiluted in their inaccessible hills. 

 The force of the wave diminished as it proceeded; and 

 the gradations in the extent of its influence are now so 

 subtle, that it is hard to say where the line should be 

 drawn to denote a preponderance of the one element over 

 the other. The difiiculty is further increased by the 

 circumstance that the Aryan language, customs, and 

 beliefs appear to have been carried far beyond any per- 

 ceptible influence of the Aryan blood, so that whole races, 

 who show little or nothing of the latter, have become 

 thoroughly imbued with the former. 



Not, however, without notable modifications have the 

 Aryan language, religion, and customs thus permeated 



