Inhabitant, —Three races widely distinguished from each other inhabit India. In the n.e. are Mongols, resembling the Thibetans and Burmese; in the s., Dravidians, the rnition of whom toother great branches of the human family is still a subject of dispute; and in the n.w., Aryans. It is supposed that at a remote epoch a branch of the Aryan race (q.v.)entered the peninsr.71 from the n.w., established themselves first in the Punjab, and thence gradually diffused themselves as a dominant race over the whole of northern and central India, imbuing the subject population more or less completely with their religious system and their language, and thus forming, the Hindus. Tribes still the mountainous districts and jungles are supposed to be outstanding islands of the aboriginal population that resisted the tide of Hindu conquest and civilization. The Hinduizing influence extended feebly, if at all, into the Deccan, the great majority of whose inhabit ants, therefore;'are supposed not to belong etiniolOgicallr to the Aryan race.
Professor Friedrich Miller thus distributes the Indian races according to their languages (see also the Geographical Magazine for Jan., 1878).
1. Mongols—(1) Thibetans, subdivided into Thibetans proper, in upper terraces of the Himalayas; and, s. of them, the sub-Himalayan tribes, speaking Lepcha, Kiranti, Limbu, 3.1unni, etc. (2) The Birman or Lohitic races, speaking Burmese, of Aracan, Kooch, Dhimal, Bodo, Gem, Miri, Singpho, Naga, Kuki, etc. (3) The Thai, or Siamese races,
speaking Ahom (Assam), Khamti, etc.
B. Dratidians, subdivided into—(1) The Munda branch—Kol (in Chota Nagpore), Solite], Ramusi, Warali, Mice], etc. (2) The Dravida branch proper—Mimi), Telinga, Canarese, Malayala, Tulava, Toda, Goud, Khond, Rajamahal, Koh Brahui (in Beloo chistau). (3) The Singhalese branch in Ceylon, including the Veddahs., The Tainnl, Telinga, Canarese, Malayala, Tulava, and Singhalese are spoken by cultivated races; the other languages by rude hill-tribes.
0. Aryans, subdivided into—(1) The races of Dardistan and the n.w. frontier, includ ing the Siah-posh Kaffirs, and other rude tribes. (2) The Hindus, including the culti vated races speaking the following languages: Cashmiri, spoken in Cashmere; Punjabi, in the Punjab: Hindi, in various dialects sometimes described as languages, spoken in the western plain of the Ganges and Malwa; Sindhi, in Sindc; Cuteln, in Cutch; Gug erati, in Gngerat; Mahrati, in the n.w. Deccan, s. of the Vindhya mountains; and Bengali, spoken in the plain of the Ganges, e. of the bend of the river at Rajmahal; and the Orya, Assami, and Nepauli, all resembling the Bengali, and spoken in Orissa, Assam, and Nepaul by the Hindu section of the inhabitants. For an account of the connection of these languages with the old Prakrit dialects of India, see SANSKRIT and