98 
ON THE ORIGINAL INHABITANTS 
distinctions did not suffice, new conditions and new compli- 
cations are continually giving rise to new variations and 
combinations in Hindu society. Thus among the Yellalar, 
such new castes have lately arisen, and, if I am not mistaken, 
some promoters of the widow-remarriage movement advocate 
the establishment of a new caste^ composed of those who 
have married widows and of the offspring of such marriages. 
CHAPTEE V. 
On the Pallae, Pallavas, Pulayar, Ballas (Bhallas), 
Bhils, Pulindas, &c. 
What was originally an accidental discrepancy in the 
pronunciation of the name of the Mallas or Pallas, though 
immaterial in itself, has produced occasionally in the course 
of time a real difference. It may perhaps be assumed, 
either that those who had descended from the mountains to 
the plains preferred to be called Pallas, because the Dra- 
vidian word pallam signifies depth or loio country, or that they 
imparted this meaning to the term j:)allain, unless the vocal 
similarity between Pallan, a Palla, and pallam, low country, 
is regarded as an accidental freak of language. 
In these circumstances one may be justified in distin- 
guishing in certain localities, between the Mallas and Pallas 
as between Highlanders and Lowlauders, while we may find 
elsewhere Mallas living in the plains and Pallas on the 
mountains. After a prolonged residence of the descendants 
of the Highlanders in the plains and of the Lowlauders in 
the mountains, both might re-adjust their names to the actual 
places they are occuppng, and call themselves, respectively, 
Mallar and Pallar. 
The Pallas appear in Sanskrit literature as Pallavas, 
Fa/ilaras, Pa/inaras, Palhava and Plaras. 
