PALI.
The word Hindu is used in various senses, and it is important to guard against the confusion that may thence arise. It is applied (1) to the people speaking 'file Hindi dialect of the North-western Provinces: (2) to the Aryans of northern India; (3) to the cultivated races of India, both Aryan and Dravidian, who profess the Hindu religion, and have been influenced by the Indian civilization common to both. The cultivated peoples of India professing the Hindu religion, or Hindus in the third sense, not only differ in language in different provinces of India, but in customs and dress. The Mohammedan population, on the other hand, in all parts of India, wear the same dress, affect the same customs, and speak one language—Hindustani or Urdu, a dialect which sprang up at the Mohammedan court of Delhi, and which is a highly cultivated form of Hindi intermixed with a large number of Persian and Arabic words. It is the language generally used by the British government in official business. In several provinces, however, attempts have been recently made to substitute for it the local languages, such as Siadhi and Assami, many of which have received little literary cultivation.
The returns published with reference to books published in India in 1872 unfortu nately do not refer to all the provinces, but they give some idea of the relative importance of the native languages. In the North-west Provinces, out of 317 hooks published, 90 were in Hindustani or Urdu, 53 in Hindi, 56 in Persian, 47 in Arabic, and 33in English. In the Madras presidency, out of 508 published, 177 were in Tamil, 115 in Telugu, 26 in Malayalhn, 22 in Canarese, and 70 in English. In Bombay Presidency, out of 779 books, 214 were in Mahrati, 243 in Gugerati, and 157 in English. In Bengal, 759 native books were published, but in what languages Is not stated.
In India there are rude tribes belonging to the Mongol, Dravidian, and Aryan races. The Sialtposh Kaffirs and kindred tribes of Dardistan arc undoubted Aryans, who know nothing of Hindu culture. The Mongols n. and e. of the Tend, in the same way, have none of the culture of Bhotan, Thibet, and China. They have caused much trouble on
the Assam frontier, where several districts are excluded from the operation of regular laws, and the deputy-commissioner of Assam now holds an annual meeting of the hill tribes. From 1854 to 1865 the Angami Nagas made 19 raids into the plains. and killed 236 people; hut in the latter year a military post was occupied in their country, and the raids have ceased. The hill-tribes of the Dravidian race are also in the lowest stage of savagery. . \ mong the most important and best known of them are the Bheels. who are found in Candeish ; and the Khonds and Koles, who inhabit Orissa. The former were wont to live by plunder, and used to burst out of their jungles like tigers, committing the most frightful excesses; but in 1825, after various methods of subduing them had been unsuccessfully tried by the British government, it was resolved to tempt them into military service. A Bhcel corps was raised, into which all the wilder spirits were drafted, and the result has been a very decided improvement in the habits and disposi tion of the rest of the people. Roads have now been made through their country, and property is quite safe. The Khonds and Koles, however, are perhaps a more interesting race, since they have preserved more completely what may be regarded as the primitive religion of Hindustan. Forced into the jungles and mountains of Central India, by the victorious advance of the Aryan race from the n.w., they have preserved (in part at least), in their almost inaccessible retreats, the grim religion that prevailed in the pen imsula. before Brahmanism was heard of. That religion may be briefly characterized as devil-worship. The Khonds sacrifice only to malignant deities, such as Siva the destroyer, the goddess Kali, and'the God of the earth, whom they seek to propitiate by human sacrifice, principally' of children, who, however, are not taken ffom their own race, but kidnapped from neighboring tribes. Successful efforts have been made by the British government to suppress these practices.