1904.] 
P. R. T. Gurdon —The Morans. 
37 
Dibrugarh. The Morans are mentioned in an Assamese Buranji as 
haying been subdued by the Ahom invader in 1251 A. D. Robinson says 
^hat the word Moran signifies “inhabitant of the jungle”. In the 1891 
Census Report Mr. Gait wrote as follows : “There has been a good deal 
of confusion between the terms ‘Moran, Matak, and Moamaria.’ ” The 
Morans have already been referred to as having been the first tribe to 
be conquered by the Ahoms when they entered Assam from over the 
Patkai. They were employed by the Ahom Kings as carriers of fire¬ 
wood and were known as Habungias, an Ahom or rather an Assamese 
Corruption, of the Moran word habong (man). A writer in the Jonaki 
Magazine of April 1891 is of opinion that the “ Morans are the autoch. 
4 v -• 
thons of the Assam Valley,” a conclusion which I think is not unlikely 
to prove correct. The strong similarities of the different languages of 
the Bodo group I have detailed below, need no further demonstration 
than the lists will show; and it appears that the Moran language 
certainly belongs to the Bodo or Kachari group. Before concluding 
I may mention that there seems to be also some connection between 
the languages of the Bodo group and Deori-Chutiya, which is now like 
Moran practically a dead language, originally spoken by the priestly 
or Levite class among the Chutiyas (Introduction to Brown’s Deori- 
Chutiya Grammar). Take the following words which I have picked 
out from Brown’s Vocabulary :— 
English. 
Deori-Chutiya. 
Plains Kachari. 
Fowl 
du 
dao 
Cat 
midige 
manzi 
Tiger 
mesa 
mosa 
Deer 
meshi 
masamai 
Snake 
dubra 
r , M ( Dimasa 
Zlbu {Julou 
Dove 
duchu dua 
douth5 
Crow 
duka 
daokha 
If the equivalents in Hodgson’s Bodo or Mech, and Dimasa are 
studied, great similarity will be found. Ho doubt it would be possible to 
trace similarities between words in Garo, for the Garo language belongs 
to the Bodo group also. 
I think, in conclusion, that strong linguistic affinity has been proved 
between the Moran, Kachari, Dimasa (Hills Kachari), and Hodgson’s 
Bodo or Mech ; it now remains to discuss whether or not there are 
similarities between these tribes from an Ethnographical point of view, 
but this must form the subject of another paper. 
