CHAPTER IV 



THE ABORIGINAL TRIBES 



Something has already been said regarding the inter- 

 mixture of EQndii 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 

 coimtry it would possess a comparatively feeble interest. 

 Its high importance hes in its furnishing us with a hving 

 example of a process which has, as already suggested, played 

 an important part in the development of the races which 

 compose the mass of modem 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 stiU going on around 

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

 construction of modern Hinduism by the process of trans- 

 formation which is here going on before our eyes. 



It is difficult to say how far the actual admixture of 

 blood has taken place. There is small room for doubt that 

 the so-called Gond Rajas of pre-Mahomedan times were 

 nearly, or quite, pure Hindu Rajpiits, exercising a feudal 

 authority over numerous petty chiefs of mixed descent. 

 The former have been nearly swept away, their only remain- 

 ing representative being the pensioned Gond Raja of Nagpur ; 

 the latter remain in their descendants, and, almost to a 

 man, show the clearest signs of possessing a mixture of the 

 Hindu and aboriginal blood. The Hitidu element in such 

 cases has not been the debased article current among the 

 masses of the labouring population, but the purer strain 

 derived from the aristocratic famihes of Rajputana. It is 

 as it were the f,rst cross in the mixed breed, and thus, as 

 might be expected, shows the characteristics of both sides 

 clearly developed. In other cases, among the lower races 



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