Dravaa (whence the term 'Dravidian languages'), with its capital at Conjeveram (Kanchipuram).

The Konkan is the term formerly applied (and still in use) for the low country between the Western Ghats and the sea the similar country on the eastern coast is called, in the north the Northern Circars, in the south the Carnatic.

PART III.

RACES AND LANGUAGES OF INDIA.

§ 33. A Collection of many Nations. § 34. Foreigners. § 35. Muhammadans of Foreign Descent. § 36. Races that have occupied the Country since the dawn of History. § 37. Successive Waves of Conquest. § 38. Aryan Races. § 39. Nor-Aryan Races. § 40. Dravidians. § 41. Miscellaneous Non-Aryan Tribes.

§ 33. A Collection of many Nations. The population of India is composed of many distinct races, some differing widely from others in habits and customs, in language, in religion, and even in appearance; and the common name Indian, like the common name European, is applied to all the members of a collection of many nations. We will here analyse this collection as it exists at the present day; it will be seen hereafter that a clear understanding of this difference of race will be of the highest importance in the study of the earliest history, and will be necessary for the profitable study of the history of later times.

§ 34. Foreigners. It will be useful to exclude at once from our analysis all inhabitants of a distinctly foreign origin. Amongst these should be counted not only Europeans (including Eurasians or the offspring of a mixed parentage), Chinese, and the other non-Indian Asiatics, and the many alien nationalities of comparatively recent settlement in the country; but also such communities as the Armenians, the Jews of Cochin and other parts, and

the Pársís, who, though long resident here, have always been insignificant in point of numbers, have always retained their alien characteristics, and have had no influence on the history of the country.

2

§ 35. Muhammadans of Foreign Descent.-We may also exclude at once from our analysis those Muhammadans who are of foreign descent, that is, those Muhammadans who are not descended from converted Hindús. Their number has been estimated at nearly one-half that of the entire Musalmán population. They are chiefly found in the upper basin of the Ganges, but they form an important element in the population throughout Northern India. They are divided into four classes: Sayyids, Mughals, Patháns, and Shekhs. The Sayyids claim descent from the Prophet, taking the prefix Sayyid before their nameș, and sometimes the title Sháh. The Mughals are, as their name implies, descendants of the companions or followers of the Tartar conquerors of India, and are less numerous than the other classes. They are generally fairer in complexion than the rest, and have a Tartar cast of countenance; the name is, however, very commonly applied to Persians resident in India. They are often known by the affix Beg, and sometimes use the prefix Mir or Mírzá. The Pathans are of Afghán origin, and are always known by the affix Khán. The Shekhs are a miscellaneous class, generally including all those Muhammadans who do not belong to any of the other classes. The Muhammadan aristocracy are much attached to the languages of their ancestors, Persian and Arabic, and study them carefully; but their common language is Hindústání (which is also a common medium

The Pársís, chiefly resident in and about Bombay on the west coast, belong to the ancient Persian race, and are the descendants of refugees from Persia who fled to India on the fall of the Sassanian Dynasty in the seventh century (sec Introduction, § 91).

2 It is hardly necessary to observe that the broad division of the natives of India, into Hindús and Muhammadans, is founded on a distinction of religion only, and it is of no ethnological importance whatever.

of communication for all classes and in all parts of India) This language was originally merely the Urdu, or camp dialect of the Musalmán invaders, and was formed by a mixture of Persian with the vernaculars of the basin of the Ganges.

§ 36. Races that have occupied the Country since the Dawn of History.-The remainder of the inhabitants belong to those races which have occupied the country since the dawn of history. They form the vast majority of the whole population. But amongst these are included numerous nations which differ from each other in all characteristics of race-appearance, manners, language as widely as they differ from those nationalities which we have already excluded as being manifestly and historically foreign.

§ 37. Successive Waves of Conquest.—All the countries best known in history have been peopled by successive waves of conquering invaders pressing more and more on the earliest inhabitants; and the latter, as we can assign to them no other origin, are usually called aborigines, or children of the soil. It has almost invariably happened that the conquering race has itself occupied the most fertile lands of the country, especially the river basins, and has either reduced the aboriginal tribes to a condition of serfdom, or has driven them to the more remote districts. In cases where a second race of invaders has followed on the first, and has succeeded in conquering it in its turn, the latter has usually been compelled to occupy the more remote districts, and has driven the aborigines still further back, into the inaccessible fastnesses of mountains and forests. It has long been known that India forms no exception to the general rule. The combined result of all researches clearly proves, by the most complete induction, that at least one such wave of conquest poured over the country in early times; and we have obtained a fairly intelligible account of that conquest (which will be briefly discussed in our first chapter) by combining the testimony of ancient literature with the results of investigations into modern

race-characteristics and language. The last-mentioned in. vestigations appear even to point to another and earlier tide of invasion. For the sake of clearness, we shall first consider those races which came intò India on the clearly defined wave of conquest mentioned above-those, namely, which are called the Aryan races, of whose advent and origin a short account will be given hereafter. The original language of these tribes was one common to them with the ancestors of Englishmen and Germans, Frenchmen and Italians, Welshmen and Bretons, Poles and Russians, Greeks and Persians. Of all known languages, living or dead, the one most like this primeval language is doubtless Sanskrit; and the various Indian vernaculars in use at the present day, which are derived from this stock, together with the extent to which it is modified in them respectively, will afford us some guide in determining the full effcets of this invasion on the population of India.

§ 38. Aryan Races.-The Aryans, entering by the northwest passes, and descending first the valley of the Indus, and then that of the Ganges, attained their full strength and development on the latter river. Hence Hindí in its purest forms is very nearly connected with the parent Sanskrit. No less than 58 dialects of this great language have recently been enumerated; of which perhaps the most important are Kanaují, probably the descendant of the dialect of the old Aryan empire of Kanaúj, and Maithilí (similarly related to the language of the Aryan kingdom of Magadha). Various dialects of Hindí are spoken throughout the North-West Provinces, Oudh, Bundelkhand, Rájputána, and the province of Bihár in Bengal; as well as in the greater portion of the Central Provinces, and in many parts of the Punjab, Bombay, and Madras. Hindí has retained the written character called Nágari, hardly perceptibly differing from that in which the ancient Sanskrit mas written. From its central position, its wide diffusion,

1 Languages of the East Indies, by R. N. Cust. 1878,