NON-ARYAN, a term in use in India to designate the races whom the Aryans found in the country. Some of the Dravidian non-Aryans, aS the Tamil, Teling, Canarese, and Gond, are in great nationalities and civilised ; but the hills and forests of Central India are occupied by tribes, many of whom differ widely from those of the plains. They are small, black, and slender, but active, with peculiar features and a quick and restless eye. They wear few clothes, in the case of the wilder Mils are armed with bows and arrows, and, unless the government is strong, are always at war with their neighbours. They live in scattered and sometimes moveable hamlets, are divided into small communities, and allow great power to their chiefs. They subsist on the pro duce of their own imperfect cultivation, and on what they obtain by exchanges. Besides one or two of the Hindu gods, they have many of their own, who dispense particular blessings or calam ities. The one who •presides over the small-pox is, in most places, looked on with particular awe. The early history of all these tribes is uncertain. In the Dekhan they were in their present state at the time of the Hindu invasion. The great tract of forest called Gondwana, lying between the rich countries of Berar and Cuttack, and occasion ally broken in upon by patches of cultivation, i gives a clear idea of the original state of the Dekhan and the progress of its improvement.
They sacrifice fowls, pour libations before eating, are guided by inspired magicians, and not by priests, and bury their dead. They are all much addicted to spirituous liquors, and most of them kill and eat oxen. Their great abode is the Vindhya mountains, which run east and west from the Ganges to Gujerat, and also the broad tract of forest which extends north and south, from the neighbourhood of Allahabad to the latitude of Masulipatam, and with interruptions almost to Cape Comorin. In some places the forest has been encroached on by cultivation, and their inhabitants have remained in the plains as village watchmen, hunters, and other trades suited to their habits. In a few places their devastations have restored the clear country to the forest, and the remains of villages are seen among the haunts of wild beasts. There are other tribes of moun taineers in the north-eastern hills and the lower branches of the Himalaya, who partake more of the features and appearance of the nations be tween them and China. No separate mention is made of the mountain tribes by the Greeks, but Pliny more than once speaks of such communities.