CRANIOLOGY OF PEOPLE OF INDIA. 101 



of the female is about the middle of the mesaticephalic group ; both were orthognathous 

 and platyrhine. The breadth in the malar and zygomatic regions was not so great as to 

 give the impression that the face was markedly broad ; but from the absence of the 

 lower jaw the proportion between the length and breadth of the entire face could 

 not be obtained. The general dimensions of the woman's skull were small, and its 

 cranial capacity, 1030, was in the lowest category of human skulls. In the man, 

 however, the capacity was higher than is customary in the skulls of savage races. If we 

 are to regard these people, and some of the primitive tribes in Southern India described 

 by Mr Edgar Thurston, as prse-Dravidian, there is no evidence that they are Negritos. 



It is customary, in speaking of the existing natives of India, to consider that they 

 belong to four ethnic types — Mongolian, Kolarian, Dravidian and Aryan or Indo-Aryan. 

 The possibility of the presence of a Negrito element should also be made the subject 

 of enquiry. 



The Mongolians or Tibeto-Burmans are found on the northern and eastern confines 

 of India, and on the east of the Bay of Bengal. I have described representative 

 people of this type in Part I. of this Memoir.* 



The Kolarians and Dravidians, on account of linguistic differences, have been by 

 many writers regarded as two distinct ethnic types. It has been assumed that the 

 Kolarian invaders had preceded the Dravidian, and had migrated into India through 

 the north-east passes. The Dravidians, again, are stated to have found their way into 

 the Punjab by the north-west passes, and to have spread into Central and Southern 

 India, though others have conjectured that they came from the south and east.t They 

 are regarded as older inhabitants than the Aryans, who are thought to have entered 

 India, something more than 4000 years ago, from the Hindu Kush, the Pamir plateau, 

 and the high valley of Cashmere. The aborigines of the hill districts in Southern 

 India, the Central Provinces and the Lower Provinces of Bengal, have been described 

 as in part Kolarians and in part Dravidians. 



Mr B. H. Hodgson, in his essay on the Kocch, Bodo and Dhimal tribes, | uses the 

 term Tamulian as equivalent to aboriginal, and, whilst the people of the sub-Himalayan 

 district belong to the Tibetan stock, and those further east to the Chinese, he regards 

 those to the south as Tamulian, and as represented by the Kols, Bhils, Gonds, Oraons 

 and Mundas. He is of opinion that amongst the Tamulians the physical type is 

 essentially the same in all the tribes. 



During the last ten years, and principally through the influence of the writings of 

 Mr H. H. Risley,§ the distinction between Kolarian and Dravidian-speaking tribes has 

 come to be regarded as only linguistic, and not as representing differences in physical 

 type. " The Male of the Rahjmahal hills," he says, " and the Oraons of Chota Nagpore, 

 both of whom speak languages classed as Dravidian, are identical in point of physique 



* Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin., vol. xxxix., 1899. 



t Sir W. W. Hunter's Indian Empire and Thurston's Madras Bulletin, 1899, p. 195. 



J Calcutta, 1847. 



§ Tlie Tribes and Castes of Bengal, 1891. 



