The Ethnology of the British Colonies and Dependencies Part 12

5. Jugah _Pennu_, the G.o.d of small-pox.

6. Madzu _Pennu_, or the village deity, the universal _genius loci_.

7. Soro _Pennu_, the hill G.o.d.

8. Jori _Pennu_, the G.o.d of streams.

9. Gossa _Pennu_, the forest G.o.d.

10. Munda _Pennu_, the tank G.o.d.

11. Sugu _Pennu_, or Sidruja _Pennu_, the G.o.d of fountains.

12. Pidzu _Pennu_, the G.o.d of rain.

13. Pilamu _Pennu_, the G.o.d of hunting.

14. The G.o.d of births.[36]

The most southern of the Orissa hill-tribes are the _Sur_; connected by language with the preceding tribes; as they were with each other and the Rajmahali mountaineers.

These stand in remarkable contrast with the rest of the population of Orissa; whose language is the Udiya, a tongue which, according to many, belongs to a wholly different cla.s.s, or, at least, to a different division of the present.

South of Chicacole, however, the Tamul tongues are spoken continuously.

I cannot say where the southern limits of the Sur population come in contact with the northern ones of the--

_Chenchwars_--who occupy the same range of mountains, in the parts between the rivers Kistna and Pennar, and, probably, extending as far south as the neighbourhood of Madras. Their language is the Telugu, the language of the parts around, and of Tamul origin.[37] The contrast between the Chenchwars of the hills, and the Telingas of the lower country lies in their mythologies; the former retaining much of the original creed of their country, the latter being Brahminists.

Below Madras, the mountain range changes its direction, and the next locality under notice is the Neilgherry hills.

The families here are--

1. _The Cohatars_--so little Indianized as to eat of the flesh of the cow, amounting to about two thousand in number, and occupants of the highest part of the range.

2. _The Tudas._--An interesting monograph by Captain Harkness has drawn unusual attention to these mountaineers, the chief points of importance being the comparative absence of all elements of Brahminism, and the occurrence in their physiognomy of the most favourable points of Hindu beauty--regular and delicate features, oval face, and a clear brunette skin. Free from the other religious and social characteristics of Hinduism as the Tudas may be, they still admit a sort of caste; _e.g._, whilst the _Peiki_, or _Toralli_, may perform any function, the _Kuta_, or _Tardas_, are limited. Neither did they always intermarry, though they do now; their offspring being called _Mookh_, or _descendants_.

3. _The Curumbas_, called by the Tudas _Curbs_, inhabit a lower level than the preceding populations, but a higher one than--

4. _The Erulars_ at the foot of the hills; falling into two divisions--_a_, the _Urali_ (a name to be noticed), and _b_, the _Curutali_.

Between the Neilgherries and Cape Comorin, the hill-tribes are worth enumerating, if only for the sake of showing their complexity. According to Lieutenant Conner in the "Madras Journal," they are--1, Cowders; 2, Vaishvans; 3, Mudavenmars; 4, Arreamars, or Vailamers; 5, Ural-Uays.

Besides these, there is a population of predial slaves, divided and subdivided.

1. Vaituvan, Konaken.

2. Polayers-- _a._ Vulluva.

_b._ Kunnaka.

_c._ Morny Pulayer.

3. Pariahs.

4. Vaidurs.

5. Ulanders and Naiadi.

To return to the Neilgherries, and follow the western Ghauts upwards, a population more numerous than any hitherto mentioned is that of the--

_Buddugurs_, called also _Marves_. This name takes so many forms that _Berdar_ may be one of them. One division of Buddugurs is called _Lingait_.

I cannot follow the Ghauts consecutively; however, when we reach the southern portion of the Mahratta country, we find in the rajahs.h.i.+p of Satarah, two predatory tribes:--

_The Berdars_, supposed to be closely allied to Ramusi. The--

_Ramusi_ themselves connected by tradition and creed, with the _Lingait_ Buddugurs. But not by language; or at any rate not wholly so. The Ramusi dialect is a mixture of Tulava and Marathi--the former being undoubted Tamul, but the latter in the same category with the Udiya.

The continuous Tamul languages are now left to the south of us, and the hill-tribes next in order, will have unlearnt their native tongues, and be found speaking the Hindu dialects of the countries around them.

Hence, the evidence of their Tamulian descent will be less conclusive.

_Warali of the Konkan._--Mountaineers of the northern Konkan. We have seen this name twice already, and we shall see it again. The evidence of their Tamulian extraction is imperfect. Their language is Marathi and their creed an imperfect Brahminism. Their mountaineer habits separate them from--

_The Katodi_--outcasts, who take their name from preparing the _kat_, or _cat-echu_, and who hang about the villages of the _plains_.

_The Kuli._--From Poonah to Gujerat, the occupants of the range of mountains parallel to the coast are called _Kuli_ (_Coolies_), the same in the eyes of the Hindus of the western coast, as the _Kol_ were in those of the Bengalese and Orissans; and similarly named. Their language is generally (perhaps always) that of the country around them, _viz._, Marathi amongst the Mahrattas, and Gujerathi in Gujerat. However, difference of habits and creed sufficiently separate them from the Hindus.

_The Bhils._--These are generally a.s.sociated with the Kulis; from whom they chiefly differ geographically, belonging, as they do to the transverse ranges--the Satpura and Vindhia mountains--rather than to the main line of the Ghauts with its due north-and-south direction, and with its parallelism to the coast.

_The Paurias._--Hill-tribes in Candeish, belonging to the Satpura range, and conterminous with the Bhil tribes, and with--

_The Wurali of the Satpura range._--The Wurali re-appear for the fourth time. In the parts in question they are in contact with the Bhils and Paurias; from whom they keep themselves distinct; and from whom they differ in dialect. Still their language is Marathi. Pre-eminent as they are for their Paganism, their country contains ruins of brick buildings, and considerable excavations.[38]

These three are the hill-tribes of the water-shed of the rivers Tapti and Nerbudda. The water-system of the south-western feeders of the Ganges is more complex. Along the mountains between Candeish and Jeypur come--

Certain _Bhil_ tribes.

_The Mewars_--under the Grasya chiefs of Joora, Meerpoor, Oguna, and Panurwa. The political relations of these tribes--in some cases of an undetermined nature--are with the Rajput governments; in other words, we are now amongst the aborigines of Rajasthan.

_The Minas._--These, like the Mewars, are in geographical contact with certain Bhil tribes; in political contact with the Rajputs--the Mewars with those of Udipur; the Minas with those of Ajmer, Jeypur, and Kota.

_The Moghis._--At present, a free company rather than a population; although the representatives of what was once one--_viz._, the aborigines of Jodpure. So little Brahminists are they that they eat of the flesh of the jackal and the cow, and indulge freely in fermented drinks.

The hills that separate Malwah from the Haroti country, and from the south-eastern boundary of the valley of the River Chumbul are occupied by--

_The Saireas._--This is a name which has occurred before and elsewhere;[39] and is almost certainly, anything but native. Tribes, under this name, extend into Bundelcund.[40]

_The Goands._--The central parts between Candeish and Orissa, the head-waters of the Nerbudda and Tapti on the west, and of the G.o.davery on the east, still require notice. Here the hill population is at its _maximum_, both in point of numbers and characteristics; and the _Khond_ forms of the Tamul re-appear under the name _Goand_. Of these we have specimens from--

_a._ The Gawhilghur mountains near Ellichpoor.

_b._ Chupprah.

_c._ Mundala in _Gundwana_, or the _Goand_ country.

Such are the chief hill-populations; which, although they belong to Tamulian stock, differ as to the extent to which they carry outward and visible signs of their origin. Some, like the Rajmahali, are merely separated geographically; and, perhaps, not even that. Others, like the Khonds of Orissa, are contrasted with the Tamuls of the south, by their inferior and social condition, and their non-Brahminical creeds. The Minas and Bhils differ in language; whilst the Ramusis and Berdars, probably, exhibit transitional forms of speech. The Tudas and Chenchwars surrounded by Telingas and Tamuls, as the Khonds and Goands are by Udiyas and Mahrattas, are merely the population of the parts around them with a primitive polity and religion.

The _lettered_ languages of the Dekhan, where the Tamul character is unequivocal, but where the civilizational influences have chiefly been Hindu, are spoken in continuity from Chicacole, east, and the parts about Goa, west, to Cape Comorin, _i.e._, in the Madras Presidency, and in the countries of Mysore, Travancore, and the coasts of Malabar and Coromandel. Of these, the most northern--beginning on the eastern coast--is--

_The Telinga or Telugu._--Spoken from the parts about Chicacole to Pulicat, where it is succeeded by--

_The Tamul Proper._--The language of the Coromandel coast and the parts of the interior as far as Coimbatore. Each of these tongues has a double form, one for literature, and one for common use; the former being called the High, the latter the Low, Tamul or Telugu, as the case may be, and the creed which it embodies being either Brahminism, or some modification of it.

In Travancore and on the Malabar coast the language is--