The vast tract of country, over which my investigations in connection
with the ethnographic survey of South India have extended, is commonly
known as the Madras Presidency, and officially as the Presidency
of Fort St. George and its Dependencies. Included therein were the
small feudatory States of Pudukottai, Banganapalle, and Sandur, and
the larger Native States of Travancore and Cochin. The area of the
British territory and Feudatory States, as returned at the census,
1901, was 143,221 square miles, and the population 38,623,066. The
area and population of the Native States of Travancore and Cochin,
as recorded at the same census, were as follows:--
Area. Population.
Sq. Miles.
Travancore 7,091 2,952,157
Cochin 1,361 512,025
Briefly, the task which was set me in 1901 was to record the 'manners
and customs' and physical characters of more than 300 castes and
tribes, representing more than 40,000,000 individuals, and spread
over an area exceeding 150,000 square miles.
The Native State of Mysore, which is surrounded by the Madras
Presidency on all sides, except on part of the west, where the
Bombay Presidency forms the boundary, was excluded from my beat
ethnographically, but included for the purpose of anthropometry. As,
however, nearly all the castes and tribes which inhabit the Mysore
State are common to it and the Madras Presidency, I have given here
and there some information relating thereto.
It was clearly impossible for myself and my assistant, in our travels,
to do more than carry out personal investigations over a small portion
of the vast area indicated above, which provides ample scope for
research by many trained explorers. And I would that more men, like my
friends Dr. Rivers and Mr. Lapicque, who have recently studied Man in
Southern India from an anthropological and physiological point of view,
would come out on a visit, and study some of the more important castes
and tribes in detail. I can promise them every facility for carrying
out their work under the most favourable conditions for research,
if not of climate. And we can provide them with anything from 112°
in the shade to the sweet half English air of the Nilgiri and other
hill-ranges.
Routine work at head-quarters unhappily keeps me a close prisoner in
the office chair for nine months in the year. But I have endeavoured to
snatch three months on circuit in camp, during which the dual functions
of the survey--the collection of ethnographic and anthropometric
data--were carried out in the peaceful isolation of the jungle,
in villages, and in mofussil (up-country) towns. These wandering
expeditions have afforded ample evidence that delay in carrying
through the scheme for the survey would have been fatal. For, as in
the Pacific and other regions, so in India, civilisation is bringing
about a radical change in indigenous manners and customs, and mode
of life. It has, in this connection, been well said that "there will
be plenty of money and people available for anthropological research,
when there are no more aborigines. And it behoves our museums to waste
no time in completing their anthropological collections." Tribes
which, only a few years ago, were living in a wild state, clad in
a cool and simple garb of forest leaves, buried away in the depths
of the jungle, and living, like pigs and bears, on roots, honey,
and other forest produce, have now come under the domesticating,
and sometimes detrimental influence of contact with Europeans, with a
resulting modification of their conditions of life, morality, and even
language. The Paniyans of the Wynaad, and the Irulas of the Nilgiris,
now work regularly for wages on planters' estates, and I have seen
a Toda boy studying for the third standard instead of tending the
buffaloes of his mand. A Toda lassie curling her ringlets with the
assistance of a cheap German looking-glass; a Toda man smeared with
Hindu sect marks, and praying for male offspring at a Hindu shrine;
the abandonment of leafy garments in favour of imported cotton
piece-goods; the employment of kerosine tins in lieu of thatch;
the decline of the national turban in favour of the less becoming
pork-pie cap or knitted nightcap of gaudy hue; the abandonment of
indigenous vegetable dyes in favour of tinned anilin and alizarin dyes;
the replacement of the indigenous peasant jewellery by imported beads
and imitation jewellery made in Europe--these are a few examples of
change resulting from Western and other influences.
The practice of human sacrifice, or Meriah rite, has been abolished
within the memory of men still living, and replaced by the equally
efficacious slaughter of a buffalo or sheep. And I have notes on a
substituted ceremony, in which a sacrificial sheep is shaved so as
to produce a crude representation of a human being, a Hindu sect mark
painted on its forehead, a turban stuck on its head, and a cloth around
its body. The picturesque, but barbaric ceremony of hook-swinging
is now regarded with disfavour by Government, and, some time ago,
I witnessed a tame substitute for the original ceremony, in which,
instead of a human being with strong iron hooks driven through the
small of his back, a little wooden figure, dressed up in turban and
body cloth, and carrying a shield and sabre, was hoisted on high and
swung round.
In carrying out the anthropometric portion of the survey, it was
unfortunately impossible to disguise the fact that I am a Government
official, and very considerable difficulties were encountered owing
to the wickedness of the people, and their timidity and fear of
increased taxation, plague inoculation, and transportation. The
Paniyan women of the Wynaad believed that I was going to have the
finest specimens among them stuffed for the Madras Museum. An Irula
man, on the Nilgiri hills, who was wanted by the police for some mild
crime of ancient date, came to be measured, but absolutely refused to
submit to the operation on the plea that the height-measuring standard
was the gallows. The similarity of the word Boyan to Boer was once
fatal to my work. For, at the time of my visit to the Oddes, who have
Boyan as their title, the South African war was just over, and they
were afraid that I was going to get them transported, to replace the
Boers who had been exterminated. Being afraid, too, of my evil eye,
they refused to fire a new kiln of bricks for the club chambers at
Coimbatore until I had taken my departure. During a long tour through
the Mysore province, the Natives mistook me for a recruiting sergeant
bent on seizing them for employment in South Africa, and fled before my
approach from town to town. The little spot, which I am in the habit
of making with Aspinall's white paint to indicate the position of the
fronto-nasal suture and bi-orbital breadth, was supposed to possess
vesicant properties, and to blister into a number on the forehead,
which would serve as a means of future identification for the purpose
of kidnapping. The record of head, chest, and foot measurements,
was viewed with marked suspicion, on the ground that I was an army
tailor, measuring for sepoy's clothing. The untimely death of a
Native outside a town, at which I was halting, was attributed to my
evil eye. Villages were denuded of all save senile men, women, and
infants. The vendors of food-stuffs in one bazar, finding business
slack owing to the flight of their customers, raised their prices,
and a missionary complained that the price of butter had gone up. My
arrival at one important town was coincident with a great annual temple
festival, whereat there were not sufficient coolies left to drag the
temple car in procession. So I had perforce to move on, and leave the
Brahman heads unmeasured. The head official of another town, when he
came to take leave of me, apologised for the scrubby appearance of his
chin, as the local barber had fled. One man, who had volunteered to
be tested with Lovibond's tintometer, was suddenly seized with fear
in the midst of the experiment, and, throwing his body-cloth at my
feet, ran for all he was worth, and disappeared. An elderly Municipal
servant wept bitterly when undergoing the process of measurement,
and a woman bade farewell to her husband, as she thought for ever,
as he entered the threshold of my impromptu laboratory. The goniometer
for estimating the facial angle is specially hated, as it goes into the
mouth of castes both high and low, and has to be taken to a tank (pond)
after each application. The members of a certain caste insisted on
being measured before 4 P.M., so that they might have time to remove,
by ceremonial ablution, the pollution from my touch before sunset.
Such are a few of the unhappy results, which attend the progress of
a Government anthropologist. I may, when in camp, so far as measuring
operations are concerned, draw a perfect and absolute blank for several
days in succession, or a gang of fifty or even more representatives
of different castes may turn up at the same time, all in a hurry to
depart as soon as they have been sufficiently amused by the phonograph,
American series of pseudoptics (illusions), and hand dynamometer,
which always accompany me on my travels as an attractive bait. When
this occurs, it is manifestly impossible to record all the major, or
any of the minor measurements, which are prescribed in 'Anthropological
Notes and Queries,' and elsewhere. And I have to rest unwillingly
content with a bare record of those measurements, which experience
has taught me are the most important from a comparative point of view
within my area, viz., stature, height and breadth of nose, and length
and breadth of head, from which the nasal and cephalic indices can
be calculated. I refer to the practical difficulties, in explanation
of a record which is admittedly meagre, but wholly unavoidable,
in spite of the possession of a good deal of patience and a liberal
supply of cheroots, and current coins, which are often regarded with
suspicion as sealing a contract, like the King's shilling. I have even
known a man get rid of the coin presented to him, by offering it,
with flowers and a cocoanut, to the village goddess at her shrine,
and present her with another coin as a peace-offering, to get rid of
the pollution created by my money.
The manifold views, which have been brought forward as to the origin
and place in nature of the indigenous population of Southern India,
are scattered so widely in books, manuals, and reports, that it
will be convenient if I bring together the evidence derived from
sundry sources.
The original name for the Dravidian family, it may be noted, was
Tamulic, but the term Dravidian was substituted by Bishop Caldwell,
in order that the designation Tamil might be reserved for the language
of that name. Dravida is the adjectival form of Dravida, the Sanskrit
name for the people occupying the south of the Indian Peninsula
(the Deccan of some European writers). [1]
According to Haeckel, [2] three of the twelve species of
man--the Dravidas (Deccans; Sinhalese), Nubians, and Mediterranese
(Caucasians, Basque, Semites, Indo-Germanic tribes)--"agree in several
characteristics, which seem to establish a close relationship between
them, and to distinguish them from the remaining species. The chief
of these characteristics is the strong development of the beard
which, in all other species, is either entirely wanting, or but
very scanty. The hair of their heads is in most cases more or less
curly. Other characteristics also seem to favour our classing them
in one main group of curly-haired men (Euplocomi); at present the
primæval species, Homo Dravida, is only represented by the Deccan
tribes in the southern part of Hindustan, and by the neighbouring
inhabitants of the mountains on the north-east of Ceylon. But,
in earlier times, this race seems to have occupied the whole of
Hindustan, and to have spread even further. It shows, on the one hand,
traits of relationship to the Australians and Malays; on the other
to the Mongols and Mediterranese. Their skin is either of a light or
dark brown colour; in some tribes, of a yellowish brown. The hair of
their heads is, as in Mediterranese, more or less curled; never quite
smooth, like that of the Euthycomi, nor actually woolly, like that of
the Ulotrichi. The strong development of the beard is also like that
of the Mediterranese. Their forehead is generally high, their nose
prominent and narrow, their lips slightly protruding. Their language
is now very much mixed with Indo-Germanic elements, but seems to have
been originally derived from a very primæval language."
In the chapter devoted to 'Migration and Distribution of Organisms,'
Haeckel, in referring to the continual changing of the distribution
of land and water on the surface of the earth, says: "The Indian
Ocean formed a continent, which extended from the Sunda Islands
along the southern coast of Asia to the east coast of Africa. This
large continent of former times Sclater has called Lemuria, from
the monkey-like animals which inhabited it, and it is at the same
time of great importance from being the probable cradle of the human
race. The important proof which Wallace has furnished by the help of
chronological facts, that the present Malayan Archipelago consists
in reality of two completely different divisions, is particularly
interesting. The western division, the Indo-Malayan Archipelago,
comprising the large islands of Borneo, Java, and Sumatra, was formerly
connected by Malacca with the Asiatic continent, and probably also
with the Lemurian continent, and probably also with the Lemurian
continent just mentioned. The eastern division, on the other hand,
the Austro-Malayan Archipelago, comprising Celebes, the Moluccas,
New Guinea, Solomon's Islands, etc., was formerly directly connected
with Australia."
An important ethnographic fact, and one which is significant, is that
the description of tree-climbing by the Dyaks of Borneo, as given by
Wallace, [3] might have been written on the Anaimalai hills of Southern
India, and would apply equally well in every detail to the Kadirs who
inhabit those hills. [4] An interesting custom, which prevails among
the Kadirs and Mala Vedans of Travancore, and among them alone, so far
as I know, in the Indian Peninsula, is that of chipping all or some of
the incisor teeth into the form of a sharp pointed, but not serrated,
cone. The operation is said to be performed, among the Kadirs, with
a chisel or bill-hook and file, on boys at the age of eighteen, and
girls at the age of ten or thereabouts. It is noted by Skeat and
Blagden [5] that the Jakuns of the Malay Peninsula are accustomed
to file their teeth to a point. Mr. Crawford tells us further that,
in the Malay Archipelago, the practice of filing and blackening the
teeth is a necessary prelude to marriage, the common way of expressing
the fact that a girl has arrived at puberty being that she had her
teeth filed. In an article [6] entitled "Die Zauberbilderschriften
der Negrito in Malaka," Dr. K. T. Preuss describes in detail the
designs on the bamboo combs, etc., of the Negritos of Malacca,
and compares them with the strikingly similar designs on the bamboo
combs worn by the Kadirs of Southern India. He works out in detail
the theory that the design is not, as I called it [7] an ornamental
geometric pattern, but consists of a series of hieroglyphics. It is
noted by Skeat and Blagden [8] that "the Semang women wore in their
hair a remarkable kind of comb, which appears to be worn entirely
as a charm against diseases. These combs were almost invariably
made of bamboo, and were decorated with an infinity of designs,
no two of which ever entirely agreed. It was said that each disease
had its appropriate pattern. Similar combs are worn by the Pangan,
the Semang and Sakai of Perak, and most of the mixed (Semang-Sakai)
tribes." I am informed by Mr. Vincent that, as far as he knows, the
Kadir combs are not looked on as charms, and the markings thereon
have no mystic significance. A Kadir man should always make a comb,
and present it to his wife just before marriage or at the conclusion
of the marriage ceremony, and the young men vie with each other as
to who can make the nicest comb. Sometimes they represent strange
articles on the combs. Mr. Vincent has, for example, seen a comb with
a very good imitation of the face of a clock scratched on it.
In discussing the racial affinities of the Sakais, Skeat and Blagden
write [8] that "an alternative theory comes to us on the high authority
of Virchow, who puts it forward, however, in a somewhat tentative
manner. It consists in regarding the Sakai as an outlying branch of
a racial group formed by the Vedda (of Ceylon), Tamil, Kurumba, and
Australian races.... Of these the height is variable, but, in all four
of the races compared, it is certainly greater than that of the Negrito
races. The skin colour, again, it is true, varies to a remarkable
degree, but the general hair character appears to be uniformly long,
black and wavy, and the skull-index, on the other hand, appears to
indicate consistently a dolichocephalic or long-shaped head." Speaking
of the Sakais, the same authorities state that "in evidence of their
striking resemblance to the Veddas, it is perhaps worth remarking
that one of the brothers Sarasin who had lived among the Veddas and
knew them very well, when shown a photograph of a typical Sakai, at
first supposed it to be a photograph of a Vedda." For myself, when I
first saw the photographs of Sakais published by Skeat and Blagden,
it was difficult to realise that I was not looking at pictures of
Kadirs, Paniyans, Kurumbas, or other jungle folk of Southern India.
It may be noted en passant, that emigration takes place at the present
day from the southern parts of the Madras Presidency to the Straits
Settlements. The following statement shows the number of passengers
that proceeded thither during 1906:--
Madras-- Total.
South Arcot Porto Novo 2,555
Cuddalore 583
Pondicherry 55
Tanjore Negapatam 238
and
Nagore 45,453
Karikal 3,422
"The name Kling (or Keling) is applied, in the Malay countries, to
the people of Continental India who trade thither, or are settled in
those regions, and to the descendants of settlers. The Malay use of
the word is, as a rule, restricted to Tamils. The name is a form of
Kalinga, a very ancient name for the region known as the Northern
Circars, i.e., the Telugu coast of the Bay of Bengal." [9] It is
recorded by Dr. N. Anandale that the phrase Orang Kling Islam (i.e.,
a Muhammadan from the Madras coast) occurs in Patani Malay. He further
informs us [10] that among the Labbai Muhammadans of the Madura coast,
there are "certain men who make a livelihood by shooting pigeons with
blow-guns. According to my Labbai informants, the 'guns' are purchased
by them in Singapore from Bugis traders. There is still a considerable
trade, although diminished, between Kilakarai and the ports of Burma
and the Straits Settlements. It is carried on entirely by Muhammadans
in native sailing vessels, and a large proportion of the Musalmans of
Kilakarai have visited Penang and Singapore. It is not difficult to
find among them men who can speak Straits Malay. The local name for
the blow-gun is senguttan, and is derived in popular etymology from
the Tamil sen (above) and kutu (to stab). I have little doubt that
it is really a corruption of the Malay name of the weapon sumpitan."
On the evidence of the very close affinities between the plants and
animals in Africa and India at a very remote period, Mr. R. D. Oldham
concludes that there was once a continuous stretch of dry land
connecting South Africa and India. "In some deposits," he writes, [11]
"found resting upon the Karoo beds on the coast of Natal, 22 out of
35 species of Mollusca and Echinodermata collected and specifically
identified, are identical with forms found in the cretaceous beds
of Southern India, the majority being Trichinopoly species. From the
cretaceous rocks of Madagascar, six species of cretaceous fossils were
examined by Mr. R. B. Newton in 1899, of which three are also found
in the Ariyalur group (Southern India). The South African beds are
clearly coast or shallow water deposits, like those of India. The
great similarity of forms certainly suggests continuity of coast
line between the two regions, and thus supports the view that the
land connection between South Africa and India, already shown to have
existed in both the lower and upper Gondwána periods, was continued
into cretaceous times."
By Huxley [12] the races of mankind are divided into two primary
divisions, the Ulotrichi with crisp or woolly hair (Negros; Negritos),
and the Leiotrichi with smooth hair; and the Dravidians are included
in the Australoid group of the Leiotrichi "with dark skin, hair
and eyes, wavy black hair, and eminently long, prognathous skulls,
with well-developed brow ridges, who are found in Australia and in
the Deccan." There is, in the collection of the Royal College of
Surgeons' Museum, an exceedingly interesting "Hindu" skull from
Southern India, conspicuously dolichocephalic, and with highly
developed superciliary ridges. Some of the recorded measurements of
this skull are as follows:--
Length 19.6 cm.
Breadth 13.2 cm.
Cephalic index 67.3
Nasal height 4.8 cm.
Nasal breadth 2.5 cm.
Nasal index 52.1 cm.
Another "Hindu" skull, in the collection of the Madras Museum,
with similar marked development of the superciliary ridges, has the
following measurements:--
Length 18.4 cm.
Breadth 13.8 cm.
Cephalic index 75
Nasal height 4.9 cm.
Nasal breadth 2.1 cm.
Nasal index 42.8
I am unable to subscribe to the prognathism of the Dravidian
tribes of Southern India, or of the jungle people, though aberrant
examples thereof are contained in the collection of skulls at
the Madras Museum, e.g., the skull of a Tamil man (caste unknown)
who died a few years ago in Madras (Pl. I-a). The average facial
angle of various castes and tribes which I have examined ranged
between 67° and 70°, and the inhabitants of Southern India may be
classified as orthognathous. Some of the large earthenware urns
excavated by Mr. A. Rea, of the Archæological Department, at the
"prehistoric" burial site at Aditanallur in the Tinnevelly district,
[13] contained human bones, and skulls in a more or less perfect
condition. Two of these skulls, preserved at the Madras Museum,
are conspicuously prognathous (Pl. I-b). Concerning this burial
site M. L. Lapieque writes as follows. [14] "J'ai rapporté un
specimen des urnes funéraires, avec une collection assez complète du
mobilier funéraire. J'ai rapporté aussi un crâne en assez bon état,
et parfaitement déterminable. Il est hyperdolichocéphale, et s'accorde
avec la série que le service d'archéologie de Madras a déja réunie. Je
pense que la race d'Adichanallour appartient aux Proto-Dravidiens." The
measurements of six of the most perfect skulls from Aditanallur in
the Madras Museum collection give the following results:--
Cephalic Cephalic Cephalic
length, breadth, index.
cm. cm.
18.8 12.4 66.
19.1 12.7 66.5
18.3 12.4 67.8
18. 12.2 67.8
18. 12.8 77.1
16.8 13.1 78.
The following extracts from my notes show that the hyperdolichocephalic
type survives in the dolichocephalic inhabitants of the Tamil country
at the present day:--
Class Number Cephalic index below 70.
examined.
Palli 40 64.4; 66.9; 67; 68.2; 68.9; 69.6.
Paraiyan 40 64.8; 69.2; 69.3; 69.5.
Vellala 40 67.9; 69.6.
By Flower and Lydekker, [15] a white division of man, called the
Caucasian or Eurafrican, is made to include Huxley's Xanthochroi
(blonde type) and Melanochroi (black hair and eyes, and skin of
almost all shades from white to black). The Melanochroi are said to
"comprise the greater majority of the inhabitants of Southern Europe,
North Africa, and South-west Asia, and consist mainly of the Aryan,
Semitic, and Hamitic families. The Dravidians of India, the Veddahs
of Ceylon, and probably the Ainus of Japan, and the Maoutze of China,
also belong to this race, which may have contributed something to
the mixed character of some tribes of Indo-China and the Polynesian
islands, and have given at least the characters of the hair to the
otherwise Negroid inhabitants of Australia. In Southern India they
are largely mixed with a Negrito element, and, in Africa, where
their habitat becomes coterminous with that of the Negroes, numerous
cross-races have sprung up between them all along the frontier line."
In describing the "Hindu type," Topinard [16] divides the population of
the Indian peninsula into three strata, viz., the Black, Mongolian, and
the Aryan. "The remnants of the first," he says, "are at the present
time shut up in the mountains of Central India under the name of Bhils,
Mahairs, Ghonds, and Khonds; and in the south under that of Yenadis,
Kurumbas, etc. Its primitive characters, apart from its black colour
and low stature, are difficult to discover, but it is to be noticed
that travellers do not speak of woolly hair in India. [17] The second
has spread over the plateaux of Central India by two lines of way,
one to the north-east, the other to the north-west. The remnants of the
first invasion are seen in the Dravidian or Tamil tribes, and those of
the second in the Jhats. The third more recent, and more important as
to quality than as to number, was the Aryan." In speaking further of
the Australian type, characterised by a combination of smooth hair
with Negroid features, Topinard states that "it is clear that the
Australians might very well be the result of the cross between one
race with smooth hair from some other place, and a really Negro and
autochthonous race. The opinions held by Huxley are in harmony with
this hypothesis. He says the Australians are identical with the ancient
inhabitants of the Deccan. The features of the present blacks in India,
and the characters which the Dravidian and Australian languages have
in common, tend to assimilate them. The existence of the boomerang
in the two countries, and some remnants of caste in Australia, help
to support the opinion."
Of the so-called boomerangs of Southern India, the Madras Museum
possesses three (two ivory, one wooden) from the Tanjore armoury
(Pl. II). Concerning them, the Dewan of Pudukkottai writes to me as
follows. "The valari or valai tadi (bent stick) is a short weapon,
generally made of some hard-grained wood. It is also sometimes made
of iron. It is crescent-shaped, one end being heavier than the other,
and the outer end is sharpened. Men trained in the use of the weapon
hold it by the lighter end, whirl it a few times over their shoulders
to give it impetus, and then hurl it with great force against the
object aimed at. It is said that there were experts in the art of
throwing the valari, who could at one stroke despatch small game,
and even man. No such experts are now forthcoming in the Pudukkottai
State, though the instrument is reported to be occasionally used in
hunting hares, jungle fowl, etc. Its days, however, must be counted as
past. Tradition states that the instrument played a considerable part
in the Poligar wars of the last century. But it now reposes peacefully
in the households of the descendants of the rude Kallan and Maravan
warriors, preserved as a sacred relic of a chivalric past, along
with other old family weapons in their puja (worship) room, brought
out and scraped and cleaned on occasions like the Ayudha puja day
(when worship is paid to weapons and implements of industry), and
restored to its place of rest immediately afterwards." At a Kallan
marriage, the bride and bridegroom go to the house of the latter,
where boomerangs are exchanged, and a feast is held. This custom
appears to be fast becoming a tradition. But there is a common saying
still current "Send the valai tadi, and bring the bride." [18]
It is pointed out by Topinard, [19] as a somewhat important piece of
evidence, that, in the West, about Madagascar and the point of Aden in
Africa, there are black tribes with smooth hair, or, at all events,
large numbers of individuals who have it, mingled particularly among
the Somalis and the Gallas, in the region where M. Broca has an idea
that some dark, and not Negro, race, now extinct, once existed. At
the meeting of the British Association, 1898, Mr. W. Crooke gave
expression to the view that the Dravidians represent an emigration from
the African continent, and discounted the theory that the Aryans drove
the aboriginal inhabitants into the jungles with the suggestion that
the Aryan invasion was more social than racial, viz., that what India
borrowed from the Aryans was manners and customs. According to this
view, it must have been reforming aborigines who gained the ascendancy
in India, rather than new-comers; and those of the aborigines who
clung to their old ways got left behind in the struggle for existence.
In an article devoted to the Australians, Professor R. Semon writes
as follows. "We must, without hesitation, presume that the ancestors
of the Australians stood, at the time of their immigration to the
continent, on a lower rung of culture than their living representatives
of to-day. Whence, and in what manner, the immigration took place,
it is difficult to determine. In the neighbouring quarter of the globe
there lives no race, which is closely related to the Australians. Their
nearest neighbours, the Papuans of New Guinea, the Malays of the Sunda
Islands, and the Macris of New Zealand, stand in no close relationship
to them. On the other hand, we find further away, among the Dravidian
aborigines of India, types which remind us forcibly of the Australians
in their anthropological characters. In drawing attention to the
resemblance of the hill-tribes of the Deccan to the Australians,
Huxley says: 'An ordinary cooly, such as one can see among the
sailors of any newly-arrived East India vessel, would, if stripped,
pass very well for an Australian, although the skull and lower jaw
are generally less coarse.' Huxley here goes a little too far in his
accentuation of the similarity of type. We are, however, undoubtedly
confronted with a number of characters--skull formation, features,
wavy curled hair--in common between the Australians and Dravidians,
which gain in importance from the fact that, by the researches
of Norris, Bleek, and Caldwell, a number of points of resemblance
between the Australian and Dravidian languages have been discovered,
and this despite the fact that the homes of the two races are so far
apart, and that a number of races are wedged in between them, whose
languages have no relationship whatever to either the Dravidian or
Australian. There is much that speaks in favour of the view that the
Australians and Dravidians sprang from a common main branch of the
human race. According to the laborious researches of Paul and Fritz
Sarasin, the Veddas of Ceylon, whom one might call pre-Dravidians,
would represent an off-shoot from this main stem. When they branched
off, they stood on a very low rung of development, and seem to have
made hardly any progress worth mentioning."
In dealing with the Australian problem, Mr. A. H. Keane [20] refers to
the time when Australia formed almost continuous land with the African
continent, and to its accessibility on the north and north-west
to primitive migration both from India and Papuasia. "That such
migrations," he writes, "took place, scarcely admits of a doubt,
and the Rev. John Mathew [21] concludes that the continent was
first occupied by a homogeneous branch of the Papuan race either
from New Guinea or Malaysia, and that these first arrivals, to be
regarded as true aborigines, passed into Tasmania, which at that time
probably formed continuous land with Australia. Thus the now extinct
Tasmanians would represent the primitive type, which, in Australia,
became modified, but not effaced, by crossing with later immigrants,
chiefly from India. These are identified, as they have been by
other ethnologists, with the Dravidians, and the writer remarks that
'although the Australians are still in a state of savagery, and the
Dravidians of India have been for many ages a people civilized in
a great measure, and possessed of literature, the two peoples are
affiliated by deeply-marked characteristics in their social system as
shown by the boomerang, which, unless locally evolved, must have been
introduced from India.' But the variations in the physical characters
of the natives appear to be too great to be accounted for by a single
graft; hence Malays also are introduced from the Eastern Archipelago,
which would explain both the straight hair in many districts, and a
number of pure Malay words in several of the native languages." Dealing
later with the ethnical relations of the Dravidas, Mr. Keane says that
"although they preceded the Aryan-speaking Hindus, they are not the
true aborigines of the Deccan, for they were themselves preceded by
dark peoples, probably of aberrant Negrite type."
In the 'Manual of Administration of the Madras Presidency,'
Dr. C. Macleane writes as follows. "The history proper of the south
of India may be held to begin with the Hindu dynasties formed by a
more or less intimate admixture of the Aryan and Dravidian systems of
government. But, prior to that, three stages of historical knowledge
are recognisable; first, as to such aboriginal period as there may
have been prior to the Dravidian; secondly, as to the period when
the Aryans had begun to impose their religion and customs upon the
Dravidians, but the time indicated by the early dynasties had not yet
been reached. Geology and natural history alike make it certain that,
at a time within the bounds of human knowledge, Southern India did not
form part of Asia. A large southern continent, of which this country
once formed part, has ever been assumed as necessary to account
for the different circumstances. The Sanscrit Pooranic writers,
the Ceylon Boodhists, and the local traditions of the west coast,
all indicate a great disturbance of the point of the Peninsula and
Ceylon within recent times. [22] Investigations in relation to race
show it to be by no means impossible that Southern India was once
the passage-ground, by which the ancient progenitors of Northern and
Mediterranean races proceeded to the parts of the globe which they now
inhabit. In this part of the world, as in others, antiquarian remains
show the existence of peoples who used successively implements of
unwrought stone, of wrought stone, and of metal fashioned in the
most primitive manner. [23] These tribes have also left cairns and
stone circles indicating burial places. It has been usual to set
these down as earlier than Dravidian. But the hill Coorumbar of the
Palmanair plateau, who are only a detached portion of the oldest
known Tamulian population, erect dolmens to this day. The sepulchral
urns of Tinnevelly may be earlier than Dravidian, or they may be
Dravidian.... The evidence of the grammatical structure of language is
to be relied on as a clearly distinctive mark of a population, but,
from this point of view, it appears that there are more signs of the
great lapse of time than of previous populations. The grammar of the
South of India is exclusively Dravidian, and bears no trace of ever
having been anything else. The hill, forest, and Pariah tribes use the
Dravidian forms of grammar and inflection.... The Dravidians, a very
primeval race, take a by no means low place in the conjectural history
of humanity. They have affinities with the Australian aborigines,
which would probably connect their earliest origin with that
people." Adopting a novel classification, Dr. Macleane, in assuming
that there are no living representatives in Southern India of any
race of a wholly pre-Dravidian character, sub-divides the Dravidians
into pre-Tamulian and Tamulian, to designate two branches of the same
family, one older or less civilised than the other.
The importance, which has been attached by many authorities to the
theory of the connection between the Dravidians and Australians,
is made very clear from the passages in their writings, which I
have quoted. Before leaving this subject, I may appropriately cite
as an important witness Sir William Turner, who has studied the
Dravidians and Australians from the standpoint of craniology. [24]
"Many ethnologists of great eminence," he writes, "have regarded the
aborigines of Australia as closely associated with the Dravidians of
India. Some also consider the Dravidians to be a branch of the great
Caucasian stock, and affiliated therefore to Europeans. If these two
hypotheses are to be regarded as sound, a relationship between the
aboriginal Australians and the European would be established through
the Dravidian people of India. The affinities between the Dravidians
and Australians have been based upon the employment of certain words
by both people, apparently derived from common roots; by the use of
the boomerang, similar to the well-known Australian weapon, by some
Dravidian tribes; by the Indian peninsula having possibly had in a
previous geologic epoch a land connection with the Austro-Malayan
Archipelago, and by certain correspondences in the physical type
of the two people. Both Dravidians and Australians have dark skins
approximating to black; dark eyes; black hair, either straight,
wavy or curly, but not woolly or frizzly; thick lips; low nose with
wide nostrils; usually short stature, though the Australians are
somewhat taller than the Dravidians. When the skulls are compared
with each other, whilst they correspond in some particulars, they
differ in others. In both races, the general form and proportions are
dolichocephalic, but in the Australians the crania are absolutely
longer than in the Dravidians, owing in part to the prominence of
the glabella. The Australian skull is heavier, and the outer table
is coarser and rougher than in the Dravidian; the forehead also is
much more receding; the sagittal region is frequently ridged, and the
slope outwards to the parietal eminence is steeper. The Australians
in the norma facialis have the glabella and supra-orbital ridges
much more projecting; the nasion more depressed; the jaws heavier;
the upper jaw usually prognathous, sometimes remarkably so." Of twelve
Dravidian skulls measured by Sir William Turner, in seven the jaw was
orthognathous, in four, in the lower term of the mesognathous series;
one specimen only was prognathic. The customary type of jaw, therefore,
was orthognathic. [25] The conclusion at which Sir William Turner
arrives is that "by a careful comparison of Australian and Dravidian
crania, there ought not to be much difficulty in distinguishing one
from the other. The comparative study of the characters of the two
series of crania has not led me to the conclusion that they can be
adduced in support of the theory of the unity of the two people."
The Dravidians of Southern India are divided by Sir Herbert Risley
[26] into two main groups, the Scytho-Dravidian and the Dravidian,
which he sums up as follows:--
"The Scytho-Dravidian type of Western India, comprising the Maratha
Braahmans, the Kunbis and the Coorgs; probably formed by a mixture of
Scythian and Dravidian elements, the former predominating in the higher
groups, the latter in the lower. The head is broad; complexion fair;
hair on face rather scanty; stature medium; nose moderately fine,
and not conspicuously long.
"The Dravidian type extending from Ceylon to the valley of the Ganges,
and pervading the whole of Madras, Hyderabad, the Central Provinces,
most of Central India, and Chutia Nagpur. Its most characteristic
representatives are the Paniyans of the South Indian Hills and the
Santals of Chutia Nagpur. Probably the original type of the population
of India, now modified to a varying extent by the admixture of Aryan,
Scythian, and Mongoloid elements. In typical specimens, the stature
is short or below mean; the complexion very dark, approaching black;
hair plentiful with an occasional tendency to curl; eyes dark; head
long; nose very broad, sometimes depressed at the root, but not so
as to make the face appear flat."
It is, it will be noted, observed by Risley that the head of the
Scytho-Dravidian is broad, and that of the Dravidian long. Writing some
years ago concerning the Dravidian head with reference to a statement
in Taylor's "Origin of the Aryans," [27] that "the Todas are fully
dolichocephalic, differing in this respect from the Dravidians, who
are brachycephalic," I published [28] certain statistics based on the
measurements of a number of subjects in the southern districts of the
Madras Presidency. These figures showed that "the average cephalic
index of 639 members of 19 different castes and tribes was 74.1;
and that, in only 19 out of the 639 individuals, did the index exceed
80. So far then from the Dravidian being separated from the Todas by
reason of their higher cephalic index, this index is, in the Todas,
actually higher than in some of the Dravidian peoples." Accustomed as
I was, in my wanderings among the Tamil and Malayalam folk, to deal
with heads in which the dolichocephalic or sub-dolichocephalic type
preponderates, I was amazed to find, in the course of an expedition
in the Bellary district (in the Canarese area), that the question
of the type of the Dravidian head was not nearly so simple and
straightforward as I had imagined. My records of head measurements
now include a very large series taken in the plains in the Tulu,
Canarese, Telugu, Malayalam, and Tamil areas, and the measurements
of a few Maratha (non-Dravidian) classes settled in the Canarese
country. In the following tabular statement, I have brought together,
for the purpose of comparison, the records of the head-measurements
of representative classes in each of these areas:--
========================================================================
| |Number | Cephalic Index |Number
| |of |=========================|of times
Class | Language |subjects|Average|Maximum,|Minimum,|index
| |examined| | cm. | cm. |was 80
| | | | | |or above
==============+=============+========+=======+========+========+========
Sukun Sale | Marathi | 30 | 82.2 | 90.0 | 73.9 | 21
Suka Sale | Do. | 30 | 81.8 | 88.2 | 76.1 | 22
Vakkaliga | Canarese | 50 | 81.7 | 93.8 | 72.5 | 27
Billava | Tulu | 50 | 80.1 | 91.5 | 71.0 | 27
Rangari | Marathi | 30 | 79.8 | 92.2 | 70.7 | 14
Agasa | Canarese | 40 | 78.5 | 85.7 | 73.2 | 13
Bant | Tulu | 40 | 78.0 | 91.2 | 70.8 | 12
Kapu | Telugu | 49 | 78.0 | 87.6 | 71.6 | 16
Tota Balija | Do. | 39 | 78.0 | 86.0 | 73.3 | 10
Boya | Do. | 50 | 77.9 | 89.2 | 70.5 | 14
Dasa Banajiga | Canarese | 40 | 77.8 | 86.2 | 72.0 | 11
Ganiga | Do. | 50 | 77.6 | 85.9 | 70.5 | 11
Golla | Telugu | 60 | 77.5 | 89.3 | 70.1 | 9
Kuruba | Canarese | 50 | 77.3 | 83.9 | 69.6 | 10
Bestha | Telugu | 60 | 77.1 | 85.1 | 70.5 | 9
Pallan | Tamil | 50 | 75.9 | 87.0 | 70.1 | 6
Mukkuvan | Malayalam | 40 | 75.1 | 83.5 | 68.6 | 2
Nayar | Do. | 40 | 74.4 | 81.9 | 70.0 | 1
Vellala | Tamil | 40 | 74.1 | 81.1 | 67.9 | 2
Agamudaiyan | Do. | 40 | 74.0 | 80.9 | 66.7 | 1
Paraiyan | Do. | 40 | 73.6 | 78.3 | 64.8 |
Palli | Do. | 40 | 73.0 | 80.0 | 64.4 | 1
Tiyan | Malayalam | 40 | 73.0 | 78.9 | 68.6 |
========================================================================
The difference in the character of the cranium is further brought out
by the following tables, in which the details of the cephalic indices
of typical classes in the five linguistic areas under consideration
are recorded:--
(a) Tulu. Billava.
71 **
72 **
73 *
74
75
76 ***
77 *****
78 ******
79 **
80 ** Average.
81 ***
82 *****
83 ********
84 ****
85 ****
86 *
87
88
89
90 *
91 *
(b) Canarese. Vakkaliga.
73 *
74
75 **
76 *****
77 **
78 *****
79 *******
80 **
81 ***
82 *** Average.
83 ***
84 **
85 ***
86 ***
87 **
88 **
89 *
90
91 *
92 *
93 *
94 *
(c) Telugu. Kapu.
72 *
73 *******
74 **
75 **
76 *******
77 ******
78 * Average.
79 ****
80 ****
81 *******
82 **
83 ***
84 *
85 *
86
87
88 *
(d) Vellala. Tamil.
68 *
69
70 *
71 ***
72 **********
73 *******
74 ** Average.
75 ******
76 ***
77 ****
78
79
80 **
81 *
(e) Malayalam. Nayar.
70 **
71 *****
72 *****
73 ******
74 * Average.
75 ******
76 ****
77 ****
78 ***
79 **
80
81
82 *
These tables not only bring out the difference in the cephalic index
of the classes selected as representative of the different areas,
but further show that there is a greater constancy in the Tamil and
Malayalam classes than in the Tulus, Canarese and Telugus. The number
of individuals clustering round the average is conspicuously greater
in the two former than in the three latter. I am not prepared to
hazard any new theory to account for the marked difference in the
type of cranium in the various areas under consideration, and must
content myself with the observation that, whatever may have been the
influence which has brought about the existing sub-brachycephalic or
mesaticephalic type in the northern areas, this influence has not
extended southward into the Tamil and Malayalam countries, where
Dravidian man remains dolicho- or sub-dolichocephalic.
As an excellent example of constancy of type in the cephalic index,
I may cite, en passant, the following results of measurement of the
Todas, who inhabit the plateau of the Nilgiri hills:--
69 **
70 *******
71 ***********
72 *******
73 ************** Average.
74 *********************
75 *********
76 ******
77 *
78 *
79 *
80
81 *
I pass on to the consideration of the type of cranium among various
Brahman classes. In the following tables, the results of measurement
of representatives of Tulu, Canarese, Marathi, Tamil and Malayalam
Brahmans are recorded:--
=============================================================================
| |Number | Cephalic Index |Number
| |of |==========================|of times
Class | Language |subjects| | | |index
| |examined|Average.|Maximum.|Minimum.|was 80
| | | | | |or above
===============+================+========+========+========+========+========
Shivalli | Tulu | 30 | 80.4 | 96.4 | 69.4 | 17
Mandya | Canarese | 50 | 80.2 | 88.2 | 69.8 | 31
Karnataka | Do. | 60 | 78.4 | 89.5 | 69.8 | 19
Smarta | | | | | |
(Desastha) | Marathi [29] | 43 | 76.9 | 87.1 | 71 | 9
Tamil | | | | | |
(Madras city)| Tamil | 40 | 76.5 | 84 | 69 | 3
Nambutiri | Malayalam [30] | | 76.3 | | |
Pattar | Tamil [31] | 25 | 74.5 | 81.4 | 69.1 | 2
=============================================================================
(a) Tulu. Shivalli.
69 *
70
71
72 *
73 *
74
75
76 ****
77
78 ***
79 ***
80 ** Average.
81 ***
82 ****
83 **
84 **
85
86 *
87
88 *
89 *
90
91
92
93
94
95
96 *
(b) Canarese. Karnataka Smarta.
70 *
71 **
72 **
73 **
74 ******
75 ***
76 ****
77 *****
78 ********** Average.
79 **
80 *****
81 ****
82 ****
83 **
84 **
85 *
86 *
87 *
88 **
89 *
(c) Tamil. Madras City.
69 *
70 **
71 *
72 *
73 **
74 ***
75 ****
76 **** Average.
77 ******
78 *****
79 *****
80 **
81
82 **
83 *
84 *
(d) Tamil. Pattar.
69 **
70 *
71 ***
72 **
73 ***
74 Average.
75 ****
76 *****
77
78 *
79 **
80 *
81 *
Taking the evidence of the figures, they demonstrate that, like the
other classes which have been analysed, the Brahmans have a higher
cephalic index, with a wider range, in the northern than in the
southern area.
There is a tradition that the Shivalli Brahmans of the Tulu country
came from Ahikshetra. As only males migrated from their home, they
were compelled to take women from non-Brahman castes as wives. The
ranks are said to have been swelled by conversions from these castes
during the time of Sri Madhvacharya. The Shivalli Brahmans are said
to be referred to by the Bants as Mathumaglu or Mathmalu (bride)
in allusion to the fact of their wives being taken from the Bant
caste. Besides the Shivallis, there are other Tulu Brahmans, who
are said to be recent converts. The Matti Brahmans were formerly
considered low by the Shivallis, and were not allowed to sit in the
same line with the Shivallis at meal time. They were only permitted
to sit in a cross line, separated from the Shivallis, though in the
same room. This was because the Matti Brahmans were supposed to be
Mogers (fishing caste) raised to Brahmanism by one Vathiraja Swami,
a Sanyasi. Having become Brahmans, they could not carry on their
hereditary occupation, and, to enable them to earn a livelihood,
the Sanyasi gave them some brinjal (Solanum Melongena) seeds, and
advised them to cultivate the plant. From this fact, the variety of
brinjal, which is cultivated at Matti, is called Vathiraja gulla. At
the present day, the Matti Brahmans are on a par with the Shivalli
Brahmans, and have become disciples of the Sodhe mutt (religious
institution) at Udipi. In some of the popular accounts of Brahmans,
which have been reduced to writing, it is stated that, during the time
of Mayura Varma of the Kadamba dynasty, [32] some Andhra Brahmans were
brought into South Canara. As a sufficient number of Brahmans were
not available for the purpose of yagams (sacrifices), these Andhra
Brahmans selected a number of families from the non-Brahman caste,
made them Brahmans, and chose exogamous sept names for them. Of these
names, Manoli (Cephalandra Indica), Perala (Psidium Guyava), Kudire
(horse), and Ane (elephant) are examples.
A character, with which I am very familiar, when measuring the heads
of all sorts and conditions of natives of Southern India, is the
absence of convexity of the segment formed by the posterior portion
of the united parietal bones. The result of this absence of convexity
is that the back of the head, instead of forming a curve gradually
increasing from the top of the head towards the occipital region,
as in the European skull figured in plate IIIa, forms a flattened
area of considerable length almost at right angles to the base of
the skull as in the "Hindu" skull represented in plate IIIb. This
character is shown in a marked degree in plate IV, which represents
a prosperous Linga Banajiga in the Canarese country.
In discussing racial admixture, Quatrefages writes as follows. [33]
"Parfois on trouve encore quelques tribus qui ont conservé plus on
moins intacts tous les caractères de leur race. Les Coorumbas du Malwar
[Malabar] et du Coorg paraissent former un noyau plus considérable
encore, et avoir conservé dans les jungles de Wynaad une indépendence
à peu près complète, et tous leurs caractères ethnologiques." The
purity of blood and ethnological characters of various jungle tribes
are unhappily becoming lost as the result of contact metamorphosis from
the opening up of the jungles for planter's estates, and contact with
more civilised tribes and races, both brown and white. In illustration,
I may cite the Kanikars of Travancore, who till recently were in the
habit of sending all their women into the seclusion of the jungle on
the arrival of a stranger near their settlements. This is now seldom
done, and some Kanikars have in modern times settled in the vicinity
of towns, and become domesticated. The primitive short, dark-skinned
and platyrhine type, though surviving, has become changed, and many
leptorhine or mesorhine individuals above middle height are to be met
with. The following are the results of measurements of Kanikars in
the jungle, and at a village some miles from Trivandrum, the capital
of Travancore:--
===========================================================
| Stature cm. | Nasal Index.
==============+=======================+====================
| Av. | Max. | Min. | Av. | Max. | Min.
Jungle | 155.2 | 170.3 | 150.2 | 84.6 | 105 | 72.3
Domesticated | 158.7 | 170.4 | 148 | 81.2 | 90.5 | 70.8
===========================================================
Some jungle Chenchus, who inhabit the Nallamalai hills in the
Kurnool district, still exhibit the primitive short stature and high
nasal index, which are characteristic of the unadulterated jungle
tribes. But there is a very conspicuous want of uniformity in their
physical characters, and many individuals are to be met with, above
middle height, or tall, with long narrow noses. A case is recorded,
in which a brick-maker married a Chenchu girl. And I was told of a
Boya man who had married into the tribe, and was living in a gudem
(Chenchu settlement).
=========================================================
| Stature cm. | Nasal Index.
==============+=====================+====================
| Av. | Max.| Min. | Av. | Max. |Min.
| 162.5 | 175 | 149.6 | 81.9 | 95.7 | 68.1
=========================================================
By the dolichocephalic type of cranium which has persisted, and which
the Chenchus possess in common with various other jungle tribes, they
are still, as shown by the following table, at once differentiated
from the mesaticephalic dwellers in the plains near the foot of the
Nallamalais:--
================================================
| | Number of
| Cephalic| times the
| Index. | index was
| | 80 or over.
========================+=========+=============
40 Chenchus | 74.3 | 1
60 Gollas | 77.5 | 9
50 Boyas | 77.9 | 14
39 Tota Balijas | 78.0 | 10
49 Kapus | 78.8 | 16
19 Upparas | 78.8 | 4
16 Mangalas | 78.8 | 7
17 Verukalas | 78.6 | 6
12 Medaras | 80.7 | 8
================================================
In a note on the jungle tribes, M. Louis Lapicque, [34] who carried
out anthropometric observations in Southern India a few years ago,
writes as follows. "Dans les montagnes des Nilghirris et d'Anémalé,
situées au coeur de la contrée dravidienne, on a signalé depuis
longtemps des petits sauvages crépus, qu'on a même pensé pouvoir, sur
des documents insuffisants, identifier avec les negritos. En réalité,
it n'existe pas dans ces montagnes, ni probablement nulle part dans
l'Inde, un témoin de la race primitive comparable, comme pureté,
aux Andamanais ni même aux autres Negritos. Ce que l'on trouve là,
c'est simplement, mais c'est fort précieux, une population métisse
qui continue au delà du Paria la série générale de l'Inde. Au bord
de la forêt vierge ou dans les collines partiellement défrichées,
il y a des castes demi-Parias, demi-sauvages. La hiérachie sociale
les classe au-dessous du Paria: on peut même trouver des groupes ou le
facies nègre, nettement dessiné, est tout à fait prédominant. Ehbien,
dans ces groupes, les chevelures sont en général frisées, et on en
observe quelques-unes qu'on peut même appeler crépues. On a donc le
moyen de prolonger par l'imagination la série des castes indiennes
jusq'au type primitif qui était (nous n'avons plus qu'un pas à faire
pour le reconstruire), un Nègre.... Nous sommes arrives à reconstituer
les traits nègres d'un type disparu en prolongeant une série graduée
de métis. Par la même méthode nous pouvons déterminer théoriquement
la forme du crâne de ce type. Avec une assez grande certitude, je
crois pouvoir affirmer, après de nombreuses mesures systématiques,
que le nègre primitif de l'Inde était sousdolichocéphale avec un
indice voisin de 75 ou 76. Sa taille, plus difficile à préciser, car
les conditions de vie modifient ce caractère, devait être petite, plus
haute pourtant que celle des Andamanais. Quant au nom qu'il convient
de lui attribuer, la discussion des faits sociaux et linguistiques
sur lesquels est fondée la notion de dravidien permet d'établir que
ce nègre était antérieur aux dravidiens; il faut done l'appeller
Prédravidien, ou, si nous voulons lui donner un nom qui ne soit pas
relatif à une autre population, on peut l'appeler Nègre Paria."
In support of M. Lapicque's statement that the primitive inhabitant
was dolichocephalic or sub-dolichocephalic, I may produce the evidence
of the cephalic indices of the various jungle tribes which I have
examined in the Tamil, Malayalam, and Telugu countries:--
===================================================
| Cephalic Index.
|==========+==========+==========
| Average. | Maximum. | Minimum.
==================+==========+==========+==========
Kadir | 72.9 | 80.0 | 69.1
Irula, Chingleput | 73.1 | 78.6 | 68.4
Kanikar | 73.4 | 78.9 | 69.1
Mala Vedan | 73.4 | 80.9 | 68.8
Panaiyan | 74.0 | 81.1 | 69.4
Chenchu | 74.3 | 80.5 | 64.3
Sholaga | 74.9 | 79.3 | 67.8
Paliyan | 75.7 | 79.1 | 72.9
Irula, Nilgiris | 75.8 | 80.9 | 70.8
Kurumba | 76.5 | 83.3 | 71.8
===================================================
It is worthy of note that Haeckel defines the nose of the Dravidian
as a prominent and narrow organ. For Risley has laid down [35] that,
in the Dravidian type, the nose is thick and broad, and the formula
expressing the proportionate dimension (nasal index) is higher
than in any known race, except the Negro; and that the typical
Dravidian, as represented by the Male Paharia, has a nose as broad
in proportion to its length as the Negro, while this feature in the
Aryan group can fairly bear comparison with the noses of sixty-eight
Parisians, measured by Topinard, which gave an average of 69.4. In
this connection, I may record the statistics relating to the nasal
indices of various South Indian jungle tribes:--
====================================================
| Nasal Index.
|================================
| Average. | Maximum. | Minimum.
===================+==========+==========+==========
Paniyan | 95.1 | 108.6 | 72.9
Kadir | 89.8 | 115.4 | 72.9
Kurumba | 86.1 | 111.1 | 70.8
Sholaga | 85.1 | 107.7 | 72.8
Mala Vedan | 84.9 | 102.6 | 71.1
Irula, Nilgiris | 84.9 | 100. | 72.3
Kanikar | 84.6 | 105. | 72.3
Chenchu | 81.9 | 95.7 | 68.1
====================================================
In the following table, I have brought together, for the purpose of
comparison, the average stature and nasal index of various Dravidian
classes inhabiting the plains of the Telugu, Tamil, Canarese, and
Malayalam countries, and jungle tribes:--
======================================================
| | Nasal |
|Linguistic area.| Index.| Stature.
===================+================+=======+=========
Paniyan | Jungle tribe | 95.1 | 157.4
Kadir | Do. | 89.8 | 157.7
Kurumba | Do. | 86.1 | 157.9
Sholaga | Do. | 85.1 | 159.3
Irula, Nilgiris | Do. | 84.9 | 159.8
Mala Vedan | Do. | 84.9 | 154.2
Kanikar | Do. | 84.6 | 155.2
Chenchu | Do. | 81.9 | 162.5
Pallan | Tamil | 81.5 | 164.3
Mukkuvan | Malayalam | 81. | 163.1
Paraiyan | Tamil | 80. | 163.1
Palli | Do. | 77.9 | 162.5
Ganiga | Canarese | 76.1 | 165.8
Bestha | Telugu | 75.9 | 165.7
Tiyan | Malayalam | 75. | 163.7
Kuruba | Canarese | 74.9 | 162.7
Boya | Telugu | 74.4 | 163.9
Tota Balija | Do. | 74.4 | 163.9
Agasa | Canarese | 74.3 | 162.4
Agamudaiyan | Tamil | 74.2 | 165.8
Golla | Telugu | 74.1 | 163.8
Vellala | Tamil | 73.1 | 162.4
Vakkaliga | Canarese | 73. | 167.2
Dasa Banajiga | Do. | 72.8 | 165.3
Kapu | Telugu | 72.8 | 164.5
Nayar | Malayalam | 71.1 | 165.2
======================================================
This table demonstrates very clearly an unbroken series ranging from
the jungle men, short of stature and platyrhine, to the leptorhine
Nayars and other classes.
In plate V are figured a series of triangles representing (natural
size) the maxima, minima, and average nasal indices of Brahmans of
Madras city (belonging to the poorer classes), Tamil Paraiyans, and
Paniyans. There is obviously far less connection between the Brahman
minimum and the Paraiyan maximum than between the Brahman and Paraiyan
maxima and the Paniyan average; and the frequent occurrence of high
nasal indices, resulting from short, broad noses, in many classes has
to be accounted for. Sir Alfred Lyall somewhere refers to the gradual
Brahmanising of the aboriginal non-Arayan, or casteless tribes. "They
pass," he writes, "into Brahmanists by a natural upward transition,
which leads them to adopt the religion of the castes immediately
above them in the social scale of the composite population, among
which they settle down; and we may reasonably guess that this process
has been working for centuries." In the Madras Census Report, 1891,
Mr. H. A. Stuart states that "it has often been asserted, and is
now the general belief, that the Brahmans of the South are not pure
Aryans, but are a mixed Aryan and Dravidian race. In the earliest
times, the caste division was much less rigid than now, and a person
of another caste could become a Brahman by attaining the Brahmanical
standard of knowledge, and assuming Brahmanical functions; and, when
we see the Nambudiri Brahmans, even at the present day, contracting
alliances, informal though they be, with the women of the country,
it is not difficult to believe that, on their first arrival, such
unions were even more common, and that the children born of them would
be recognised as Brahmans, though perhaps regarded as an inferior
class. However, those Brahmans, in whose veins mixed blood is supposed
to run, are even to this day regarded as lower in the social scale,
and are not allowed to mix freely with the pure Brahman community."
Popular traditions allude to wholesale conversions of non-Brahmans
into Brahmans. According to such traditions, Rajas used to feed
very large numbers of Brahmans (a lakh of Brahmans) in expiation of
some sin, or to gain religious merit. To make up this large number,
non-Brahmans are said to have been made Brahmans at the bidding
of the Rajas. Here and there are found a few sections of Brahmans,
whom the more orthodox Brahmans do not recognise as such, though the
ordinary members of the community regard them as an inferior class
of Brahmans. As an instance may be cited the Marakas of the Mysore
Province. Though it is difficult to disprove the claim put forward
by these people, some demur to their being regarded as Brahmans.
Between a Brahman of high culture, with fair complexion, and long,
narrow nose on the one hand, and a less highly civilised Brahman
with dark skin and short broad nose on the other, there is a vast
difference, which can only be reasonably explained on the assumption
of racial admixture; and it is no insult to the higher members of
the Brahman community to trace, in their more lowly brethren, the
result of crossing with a dark-skinned, and broad-nosed race of short
stature. Whether the jungle tribe are, as I believe, the microscopic
remnant of a pre-Dravidian people, or, as some hold, of Dravidians
driven by a conquering race to the seclusion of the jungles, it is
to the lasting influence of some such broad-nosed ancestor that the
high nasal index of many of the inhabitants of Southern India must,
it seems to me, be attributed. Viewed in the light of this remark,
the connection between the following mixed collection of individuals,
all of very dark colour, short of stature, and with nasal index
exceeding 90, calls for no explanation:--
========================================================
| Stature. | Nasal | Nasal | Nasal
| |height. |breadth.| Index.
==================+==========+========+========+========
| cm. | cm. | cm. |
Vakkaliga | 156 | 4.3 | 3.9 | 90.7
Moger | 160 | 4.3 | 3.9 | 90.7
Saiyad Muhammadan | 160 | 4.4 | 4 | 90.9
Kammalan | 154.4 | 4.4 | 4 | 90.9
Chakkiliyan | 156.8 | 4.4 | 4 | 90.9
Vellala | 154.8 | 4.7 | 4.3 | 91.6
Malaiyali | 158.8 | 4 | 3.7 | 92.5
Konga Vellala | 157 | 4.1 | 3.8 | 92.7
Pattar Brahman | 157.6 | 4.2 | 3.9 | 92.9
Odde | 159.6 | 4.3 | 4 | 93
Smarta Brahman | 159 | 4.1 | 3.9 | 95.1
Palli | 157.8 | 4.1 | 3.9 | 95.1
Pallan | 155.8 | 4.2 | 4.2 | 100
Bestha | 156.8 | 4.3 | 4.3 | 100
Mukkuvan | 150.8 | 4 | 4 | 100
Agasa | 156.4 | 4.3 | 4.3 | 100
Tamil Paraiyan | 160 | 4 | 4.2 | 105
========================================================
I pass on to a brief consideration of the languages of Southern
India. According to Mr. G. A. Grierson [36] "the Dravidian family
comprises all the principal languages of Southern India. The name
Dravidian is a conventional one. It is derived from the Sanskrit
Dravida, a word which is again probably derived from an older
Dramila, Damila, and is identical with the name of Tamil. The name
Dravidian is, accordingly, identical with Tamulian, which name has
formerly been used by European writers as a common designation of the
languages in question. The word Dravida forms part of the denomination
Andhra-Dravida-bhasha, the language of the Andhras (i.e., Telugu),
and Dravidas (i.e., Tamilians), which Kumarila Bhatta (probably
7th Century A.D.) employed to denote the Dravidian family. In India
Dravida has been used in more than one sense. Thus the so-called five
Dravidas are Telugu, Kanarese, Marathi, Gujarati, and Tamil. In Europe,
on the other hand, Dravidian has long been the common denomination of
the whole family of languages to which Bishop Caldwell applied it in
his Comparative Grammar, and there is no reason for abandoning the
name which the founder of Dravidian philology applied to this group
of speeches."
The five principal languages are Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Canarese,
and Oriya. Of these, Oriya belongs to the eastern group of the
Indo-Aryan family, and is spoken in Ganjam, and a portion of the
Vizagapatam district. The population speaking each of these languages,
as recorded at the census, 1901, was as follows:--
Tamil 15,543,383
Telugu 14,315,304
Malayalam 2,854,145
Oriya 1,809,336
Canarese 1,530,688
In the preparation of the following brief summary of the other
vernacular languages and dialects, I have indented mainly on the
Linguistic Survey of India, and the Madras Census Report, 1901.
Savara.--The language of the Savaras of Ganjam and Vizagapatam. One
of the Munda languages. Concerning the Munda, linguistic family,
Mr. Grierson writes as follows. "The denomination Munda (adopted
by Max Müller) was not long allowed to stand unchallenged. Sir
George Campbell in 1866 proposed to call the family Kolarian. He
was of opinion that Kol had an older form Kolar, which he thought
to be identical with Kanarese Kallar, thieves. There is absolutely
no foundation for this supposition. Moreover, the name Kolarian is
objectionable, as seeming to suggest a connexion with Aryan which does
not exist. The principal home of the Munda languages at the present
day is the Chota Nagpur plateau. The Munda race is much more widely
spread than the Munda languages. It has already been remarked that
it is identical with the Dravidian race, which forms the bulk of the
population of Southern India."
Gadaba.--Spoken by the Gadabas of Vizagapatam and Ganjam. One of the
Munda languages.
Kond, Kandhi, or Kui.--The language of the Kondhs of Ganjam and
Vizagapatam.
Gondi.--The language of the Gonds, a tribe which belongs to the
Central Provinces, but has overflowed into Ganjam and Vizagapatam.
Gattu.--A dialect of Gondi, spoken by some of the Gonds in Vizagapatam.
Koya or Koi.--A dialect of Gondi, spoken by the Koyis in the
Vizagapatam and Godavari districts.
Poroja, Parja, or Parji.--A dialect of Gondi.
Tulu.--The language largely spoken in South Canara (the ancient
Tuluva). It is described by Bishop Caldwell as one of the most highly
developed languages of the Dravidian family.
Koraga.--Spoken by the Koragas of South Canara. It is thought by
Mr. H. A. Stuart [37] to be a dialect of Tulu.
Bellera.--Spoken by the Belleras of South Canara, and regarded as a
dialect of Canarese or Tulu.
Toda.--The language of the Todas of the Nilgiri hills, concerning
which Dr. W. H. R. Rivers writes as follows. [38] "Bernhard Schmid,
[39] who wrote in 1837, appears to have known more of the true Toda
language than any one who has written since, and he ascribes two-thirds
of the Toda vocabulary to Tamil, and was unable to trace the remaining
third to any other language. Caldwell [40] believed the language
of the Todas to be most closely allied to Tamil. According to Pope,
[41] the language was originally old Canarese with the addition of
a few Tamil forms, but he has included in his vocabulary words which
have probably been borrowed from the Badagas."
Kota.--A mixture of Canarese and Tamil spoken by the Kotas of the
Nilgiri hills.
Badaga.--The language of the Badagas of the Nilgiri hills. Said to
be an ancient form of Canarese.
Irula.--Spoken by the Irulas of the Nilgiris, and said to be a dialect
of Tamil. According to Mr. Stuart, Kasuba or Kasuva is another dialect
of Tamil spoken by the sub-division of the Irulas which bears the
same name.
Kurumba.--Spoken by the Kurumbas of the Nilgiri hills, Malabar,
and Mysore, and regarded as a dialect of Canarese.
Konkani.--A dialect of Marathi, spoken almost entirely in the South
Canara district by Sarasvat and Konkani Brahmans and Roman Catholic
Christians.
Marathi.--In the Tanjore district, the descendants of the former
Maratha Rajas of Tanjore speak this language. It is also spoken in
the Bellary district, which was formerly under Maratha dominion,
by various Maratha castes, and in the feudatory State of Sandur.
Patnuli or Khatri.--A dialect of Gujarati, spoken by the Patnulkarans
who have settled for the most part in the town of Madura. They are
immigrants from Saurashtra in Gujarat, who are said to have come
south at the invitation of the Nayak kings of Madura.
Lambadi.--The language of the nomad Lambadis, Brinjaris, or Sugalis. It
is described by Mr. W. Francis [42] as a patois "usually based on one
of the local vernaculars, and embroidered and diversified with thieves'
slang and expressions borrowed from the various localities in which
the tribe has sojourned. Cust thought that Lambadi was Semi-Dravidian,
but the point is not clear, and it has been classed as Indo-Aryan."
Korava or Yerukala.--A dialect of Tamil spoken by the nomad caste
bearing these names. Like the Lambadis, they have a thieves' slang.
Vadari.--Recorded as a vulgar Telugu dialect spoken by a wandering
tribe of quarrymen in the Bombay Presidency, the Berars, and
elsewhere. They are doubtless Oddes or Wudder navvies, who have
migrated from their home in the Telugu country.