were intermixed and became one people.. In India, as we
know the change of language to hare taken place since the
era of the division of tribes and castes, no intermixture is-
to be imagined between Brahmans and Xatriyas on the one
side, and Sudras or perhaps Parriahs on the other. If family
connections were sometimes formed between them, the offspring
was cut off from the community as impure, and
rejected into the class of outcasts.
Various revolutions are recorded* or hinted at, in thfe
imperfect histories of Indian states, which are lüfeeïy''to
have weakened the predominant power of. the Brahmans
and Xatriyas. Such are the accessions to royal dignity of
Sudra or M’leeha dynasties.* The circumstances accompanying
these revolutions probably lowered the influenco'.of
the higher classes in the Indian system of xeastes:' The
occasional predominance of the plebeian dynastiesénay have
rendered the idioms óf the lower classes^© far prevalent-as
to have occasioned a corruption-pf the Sanskrit by in te rmixture,
in a manner^ not unlike that in whiehfdbreign
conquests have effected similar changes. -
The- importance of these "remarks with respect" to •''the'
physical history of the Indian race is obvious. The Brahman
and Xatriya races have undergone nonphysical change
through1 intermarriage with the black aborigines. That
degree of blackness which they have is thpveffect of some
other cause, probably of climate. They are still’, as it is; well
known, generally of lighter colour than the lbwer classes-;
but this and other points connected with their physical
history will be taken into consideration in a future section.
* An. instance is that of the Mauryas, a Sudra'dynasty in Magad’ha.
S e c t io n IV.— Reshlts\ of Ethnological Inquiries into the
Histerfy o£ India.^M/rkiiatioh of Dialects and Races.
The denominations-qf Indian diklebts are so numerous
that it will be worth while P | recapitulate them and to
specify their particular meanings, and to trace by their
limits the extent of the different'&ibes.
Paragraph 1.—Ancient Languages’ of Hindustan.
1. The Pali is the sacred language used by the worship--
pers of Buddha, in which -their sacred writings have been
preser^di1! It is written,; Mf alphabeMlconsiBting of round
characters, very different farm from the square Deva-
nasrari characters ; uShd in Sanskrit books, but having
nearly the same powers as the Nagari or Sanskrit letters
and arranged in the same order. Modifications of the Pali
alphabet^are ®®p,by the priests of Buddha in Tibet as well
as iaTthe Indo-Chinese.Countries of Siam, Burmah-, &c., and
inCeylon,—in short wherever the Buddhistical books are
preseryedUr
The Pali language is merely a dialectic variety of the
Sanskrit. It is an ancient tongue like the Sanskrit, no
longer extant any where as an oral ~ speech. By Mr.
Prinsep, who was an excellent judge, it was thought to
bear nearly the same relation of proximity to the Sanskrit
as the Zend. It is supposed to have been the language of
the provinces of India where Buddha was born and his
first disciples lived. This was Behar, a part of the ancient
kingdom of Magad’ha, which adopted his religion, and
where Buddhistical literature* was cultivated about three
centuries before the Christian era.
2. The language of the inscriptions decyphered by Mr.
Prinsep in different parts of India, which appear to have
been written during the reign, of Asoka, is, according to
Mr. Prinsep, an idiom very similar to. the Pali, but thought
to make some approximation to the Sindhian dialect.