fusion and alarm of the. Mohammedan invasion, Soon
after these inroads in the fourteenth century, the dominion
of the kings of Vijayanagara was extended, and finally in
the sixteenth established in the seat , of the Pandyan mo»
narchs,”# The. empire, of Vijayanagara .brings-»us down
into modern times ; its fall is connected with the récent
history of Seringapatam and Hyder Ally.
Outlines, merely historical, of the succession of dynasties
or of states would be quite unavailing d u ,the design of
this work if they were not connected with the-ethnography
and history of races, . We shall find that the preceding
sketches, imperfect as they are, of the history of kingdoms
in the Dekhan will afford some aid in this'research.
S e c t io n V.—Of the Aboriginal Tribes in the Mountainous
Parts of India, principally in the Pekhan.
It has been observed that tribes of rude and barbarous
people are found in the.mountainous parts-of India^qme
of whom are apparently descendants of the aboriginal^,or
native population of the country, or-remains of. its ancient
inhabitants, who occupied it before the arrival of the Him
doos. Numerous accounts of such races are to.be found,
partly in the memoirs published by the A s ta tic ^ ^ ^ ^ v
and in other researches, transactions, or journals of different
Literary Societies, and partly in separate works, but we
are yet far from having obtained such information respect-
ing the. languages and characters of these tribes as might
enable us to determine with, certainty what relations they
may bear to each other or to the civilised nations of India.
I shall describe the most remarkable of the mountain
tribes of India, beginning from the north-western parts
and proceeding towards the south.
* The author . of the Periplus of the Erytheau particularises Nilcynda
or Neliceram, Paralia, Malabar or Travancore, and Comdrl, i. e. Cape Comorin,
as forming part of the domain Of king Pandion,—-See Br. Vincent on the voyage
of Nearchus, Professor Wilson’s Historical Sketch of the kingdom of Pandya.
1.—Mountain Tribes of the north-western parts
of, the Dekhan,—Bhlls, Külls, Ramüsis. <
1. Of the Bhlls or Bheels.
Th8' 'country *$1*. BMls dlF Bheels is the wild and
uncultivated tract^of the Yindhya m ountain-chain which
fra^^ibl a 'g1^Éi-Jpart of; India from west to éast, to the
northward of the'HYerbudda and parallel to its course:
’"also in thè nó'fmrarai part of the Eastern
Ghaïuts. 'grandv géb^raibhicaF^feature of Western
India,” say^tne Honourable Mbuntstuart Elphinstone, “ is
the chain ólf GhaUts which runs alöng the western boundary
of'dhe^'Dekhan through ffs'^whole lengfli!!i Between this
ramg^icnd the sèa is the low country of Obfocian, now unde||
^é-^ovefhniént' of Bombay! It exténds from forty ‘ to fifty
miles in breadth, includes tracts'"fertile in rice, but is in
gen*éral veryfYdugh and Crossed''by steep and rocky hills.
Towdfds^tffe1 Ghauts the^Cmant'r ƒ 'jP-diviffed by precipitous
hillst; inte‘flectea^by’;rav‘Mb^and’iboveYed with'thick forests.
TheWarïge itself is from1 two to four thousand fèet high,
very, hbrtipt and^'iM'blitessible on the west. The passes are
slbep and difficulty£ On the easte'rh: side there’ is a tableland,
in some places of equal elevation with the Ghauts,
but'generally one thousand fèet lower.' The table-land is
near 5 the Ghauts broken, but further eastward a low open
plain.
“ The northern part' of this chain? of Ghauts and the
adjoining country is inhabited by Bheels : to the southward
of Baagland and the country at|%s base, as far to the south
as; Bassein, it is inhabited by Coolies! a tribe somewhat
resembling the Bheels but more civilised and less predatory.
The Bheels possess the eastern parts of the Ghauts and all
the branches running from them towards the. east, as far
southward as Poonah ; they even spread over the plains to
the eastward, especially to the northward of the Godavery,
and to the neighbourhood of the Wurda. On the north
they extend beyond the Tapti and the Nerbuddah,” that is
in the Yindhya Mountains. “ Both the Bheels and Coolies