not always confined to the mountainous parts of Malwa,
Kandeish and Rajputana. He says, “ They are, and deem
themselves, a distinct people. Like other Hindu tribes
they derive their origin from the gods. Mahadeva had a
family of children by an earthly mother. One of his sons,
deformed and depraved, slew the sacred bull of Siva, and
was banished to the mountains, where he became the father
of the race.” The original race of Bhils claims a high
antiquity, and there is reason to believe that they were once
masters of many of the fertile countries in the plains of
Hindustan, instead of being confined as now to rugged
mountains and impenetrable forests. There are authentic
records of the Rajput sovereigns of Jaudhpfir and Udeypur
having subdued large tracts from the Bhils, and the countries
now under the Rajput princes of Dongarpfir and Bans-
wara may be termed recent conquests from the same tribe,
who, though they have no longer their own chiefs, .-.still
form the mass of population. The same thing may besaid of
all the Rajput territories in the forests which.separate Malwa
from Guzerat and the latter province from Mewar. But
it is in the wild and uncultivated country along the left
bank of the Nerbuddah, from the plains of Nemar to those of
Guzerat, amid the Satpurah and Adjenti ranges, and among
the hills of Baglanah and Kandeish, that this race has been
least disturbed. The extraordinary custom of the tika, or
mark, that is put on the forehead of a Jlajput chief, at
his accession to power, moistened with blood \from the
thumb or toe of a Bhil, seems to be a token of their having
formerly possessed the countries where this usage prevails?.
The Minahs, another degraded tribe whose princes formerly
ruled over the country of Jeypur, are equally tenacious of
this custom as, of a proof of their former greatness.
Sir J. Malcolm is of opinion that the Bhils came originally
from the countries north-west of Malwa.* He observes,
♦He says, that tradition, supported by the local history of the Eajpoot
princes of Jaudhpdr and Udeyplir, which states that their lands were conquered
from the Bhils, lays the first scene of their residence and exploits in the
country of Marwar. Thence driven southward by other tribes, they settled
among the mountains that form the western boundary of Malwa and Kandeish.
that the priests and minstrels of Rath and Nemar pass
annually from the countries of Udeypfir and Jaudhpfir to
visit the tribes in the southern districts, and he refers to
the opinion of Captain Tod,—that the Bhils, as powerful
communities, can be traced as far back as the Mahabharata.
Vir&t, to which the five; Pandavas were banished, formed a
part of the great forest of the Herambar, which comprehended
Surashtra and Guzerat to the Malwa frontier.
Bhils are celebrated in the early poems of the Hindoos.
The Bhils also dwelt and still dwell in the country of
Nishada, the modern Narwar or Nalwar, where the tribe of
Luceriya is accounted the ancient ally of the race.
The mountain Bhils live in clusters of small huts, under
chiefs termed Nayacas. They are of small stature, active,
and capable of enduring great fatigue, andaeldom wear clothing
except a small piece of cloth round -the waist «Hhcir
arms are^bows and arrows; they are thieves and robbers.
The agricultural Bhils differ in manners from their brethren.
They are not sanguinary .but naturally Of kind dispositions.*
On a review offfhe sum total of information as yet obtained
respècting the BIrIs, which is indcè^j^c-fiÈöm being,
sufficient to authorise a positive conclusion, it appears probable
that this race is one portion of that great , stream of
population which flowed into Hindustan from the eastern
side of the Indus. They owe, as it appears, their present
barbarous condition to nature -the countries into
which they have been driven, and where they hardly support
existence. The Bhils may%b a^Wfcultivated tribe of
the Hindu stock. They may havejfë&fil driven to barbarism,
or may have assumed the life of savage mountaineers, since
they were obliged to take up their abode in wilds and
forests, like the Kafirs or Siah-Posh of the Hindó-Kósh.
Both of these races speak Indian dialect^, and both display
traces of having once practiced the' rites of the Ilindfi
religion.
, It dóesmot appear that there is anything very character-
* This» account of the BJifls is chiefly taken from Sir J. Malcolm's Memoir on
the Bhils, in- the first yolume of the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society of
Great Britain and Ireland, and from his .Memoir on Central India.