6 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTEAL INDIA 



pastoral people, distinct from other Aryan settlers in these 

 central regions. 



But what these early immigrants may really have been 

 is unimportant. For, 'when first the light of true history 

 breaks upon the country, at the period of its contact with 

 the invading Mahomedan in the fourteenth century, all 

 of them had ceased to have any separate existence. Most 

 probably they had been absorbed in the great mass of 

 the aboriginal tribes who surrounded them ; and we find 

 the country then called by the name of Gondwana, from 

 the tribe of Gonds who chiefly inhabited it. The petty 

 tribal chieftainships into which, there is reason to believe, 

 it had formerly been divided, had then been united into 

 three considerable principalities, under the sway of chiefs 

 whom all the evidence we have proves to have been of 

 mixed aboriginal and Hindu (Eajpiit) descent. Archi- 

 tectural remains, and the recorded condition of the country 

 at the time mentioned, show that these little kingdoms 

 had acquired a considerable degree of stability and develop- 

 ment ; and it has often been wondered how a tribe of such 

 rude savages as the Gonds could have r-eached a stage of 

 civilisation at that early period so greatly above anything 

 they have since shown themselves capable of. The 

 explanation seems to lie in the circumstance mentioned. 

 The real establishers of these courts, and introducers of 

 the arts, were not Gonds but Hindils. 



It is the custom in all families which trace their 

 lineage to the fountain-head of Hindii aristocracy among 

 the Rajput clans of Rajasthan to retain, like the Celtic 

 chieftains of our own country, family bards, whose duty 

 it is to record in a genealogical volume, and recite on 

 great occasions, the descent and family history of their 

 patrons. The bardic ofiice is hereditary, and where the 

 lineage of the family is really ancient, the bard is generally 

 also a descendant of the bards of the original clan. Often 

 he is the chief bard of the clan itself, and resides with 

 its _ hereditary head at the family seat in Rajasthan, 

 visiting at intervals the cadet branches of the house to 

 record their domestic events. In Gondwana, numerous 

 chiefs claim either a pure descent from Rajpilt houses, 



