72 PROFESSOR SIR W. TURNER ON 



Bhuiyd. Table II. 



In addition to the name Bhuiya, these people are known by other appellations. 

 Colonel Dalton uses as an alternative Bhiiniya, Mr Buchanan Hamilton calls them 

 Bhungiya, Mr Bisley adopts the form Bhuiya, but gives a number of synonyms ; Mr 

 "W. Crooke also names them Bhuiya. Mr Bisley considers the name to mean 

 " children of the soil," and that it is not employed as a definite tribal designation, 

 but as implying a status or connection with the land. Bhuiya is said to be a Sanskrit 

 word, used over India from Assam to Rajputand, and from Madras to Behar, associated 

 with some claim to land, a fact which Mr Risley regards as strongly supporting his 

 contention. Mr O'Donnell, in his Census Report, p. 42, states that Bhuiya, from Bhui, 

 land, is in Hindu terminology synonymous with autocthon. Colonel Dalton considers 

 that in some parts of Chuta Nagpur the name has a tribal significance, and he links 

 them with the Dravidians. He says that the lowest type have swarthy, almost black 

 skins, and coarse negro-like features. In the Keunjhar hills they are apparently the 

 dominant aboriginal people, and are described by Dalton as having the skin varying 

 from deep chocolate to tawny ; very large mouths ; thick, projecting lips ; low, narrow 

 foreheads ; eyes dark, well-shaped ; hair abundant on head but not on face ; stature 

 short, averaging 5 feet 2 inches. The higher types found in Gangpur and Bonai are 

 dark brown in colour ; hair black, straight, abundant on head, scanty on face ; stature 

 moderate ; cheek and jaw bones projecting ; face broad and square ; nose rather 

 retrousse, not very broad at the root ; mouth and teeth well formed ; eyes straight, 

 not large or deeply set. 



In the tributary States the girls seldom marry before puberty, but in other parts 

 the marriage age is twelve, and in the land-holding class during infancy. In some 

 places the unmarried men have a common domicile, and the girls also have a house set 

 apart for them. Widows may marry again. The wealthier classes are properly clothed, 

 but amongst the more primitive people the raiment is very scanty. The women are 

 tattooed. The dead are cremated and the ashes are thrown into an adjoining stream. 

 They eat pork and fowls, but not the flesh of the cow or buffalo. Many of the 

 Bhuiyas are Hinduised, others worship their ancestors. Mr Crooke states that the 

 rules of succession do not differ from those of cognate Dravidian tribes. 



The Indian Museum contains three adult crania marked Bhuiya from Keunjhar in 

 the Orissa Hills, presented by Dr W. D. Stewart in 1868. Two of these, Nos. 439, 

 441, were males ; one, No. 438, was that of a woman. 



When examined in the norma verticalis the general form was an elongated ovoid, 

 but the greater projection of the parietal eminences in the woman's skull raised its 

 breadth to 133 mm., which in relation to the length gave it a cephalic index 75*1. In 

 the two male skulls the index was 69 "8 and 74*3 respectively ; both were dolichocephalic. 

 In the woman's skull and in one of the men the vertex was comparatively flat ; in the 



