2 WALKER : GEOLOGY OF KALAHANDI STATE, 



The north-western half of the state forms a plain from 600 to 800 

 feet above the sea-level, and can be traversed either by carts or by 

 cooly transport. The south-eastern half, however, is part of the 

 plateau of the eastern Ghauts which here rise to a little over 4,000 feet 

 on an undulating plateau of about 3,000 feet. Here there are no cart 

 roads, and as the plateau is only sparsely inhabited by Khonds who 

 are very shy and difficult to collect in numbers sufficient for transport, 

 I was assisted in carrying on my work by elephant transport kindly 

 placed at my d : sposal by the state durbar and by the hill chiefs. 

 The zeal shewn by the state officials in assisting me in my work 

 was well seconded by the village people, who were friendly and always 

 willing to supply my camp with such things as were produced locally. 

 My best thanks are due to Mr. F. G. Sly, I.C.S., Political Agent, 

 Raipur, and to the chiefs and officials of the state for the assistance 

 given me in carrying out my investigations. 



There are two fairly distinct peoples, the Hindoos of the plains 

 who speak Uryia and make some claim to Aryan descent, and the 

 Khond hill men of the 3,000-foot plateau who are aborigines only very 

 slightly influenced by the doctrines of the Hindoos who inhabit the 

 low country. Though the Khonds are still regarded as wild tribes, they 

 devote themselves to agriculture and to the collection of forest 

 products, and now that they have abandoned their old barbarous 

 custom of sacrificing human lives to their gods, they seem to be little 

 behind their Hindoo neighbours in civilisation, who are their inferiors 

 from a physical point of view. 1 he great moral virtue of the Khond 

 is his truthfulness, as his vice is drunkenness. The progress of 

 civilisation among the Khonds— vis., the Hinduising and Uryiaising 

 of these aborigines— does not seem to improve them. The light- 

 heartedness of childhood is characteristic of Khonds of all ages. 



Geologically the whole state is made up of non-fossiliferous rocks, 

 chiefly crystalline schists and transitions with one small outcrop of 

 Gondwanas on the extreme north eastern points of the state and 

 occasional caps of laterite topping the broad hills which rise from the 

 plateau forming the south-eastern half of the state. 



