The various tribes inhabiting the Indian desert and the valley of the Indus would alone form an ample subject of investigation. Near the Indus, the Soda, the Kat'hi, and the Mallani afford, in history, position, and nominal remembrance, grounds for inferring that they aro the descend ants of the Sogdi, and Malli who opposed tho Macedonian in his passage down the Indus; swarms of Geto or Yuti have assumed the general title of Baluch, or retain the ancient specific name of Numri ; while others, in that of Jilt, preserve almost the primitive appellation. There are remains of the Johya and Dahya, as well as of the Get° or Jut, arid Hun, who hold places amongst the thirty-six royal races of ancient India, though these, with the liaraha and the Lohana, tribes who swarmed a few centuries ago in the Panjab, are now only to be discerned in small numbers in tho Marust'hali or the region of death,' which has even preserved the illustrious name of Kaorwa, Krishna's foo in the Mahabliarata. The Sahrai, or great robber of the western desert, the enemy of all society, is also there, and the Hindu Ilhatti, Rahtor, Joda, Chauhan, Malian', Kaorwa, Johya, Sultan°, Lohana, Arora, Khumra, Sindil, Maisuri, Vishnuvi, Jakhur, Shiag or Ashiag, and Poona. Of the Muhammadan tribes there are two, Kullom and Sahrai, concerning whose origin doubt exists, and the Jut, Rajur, Oomra, Soomm, Mair or Mer, Mor or Mohor, Baluch, Lumrea or Looka, Sumaieha, Mangulia, Baggreah, Dahya, Johya, Kairooe, Jangurca, Oondur, Berowee, Bawuri, Tawuri, Chrendea, Khossa, Sudani, and Loliana are nyad, or proselytes, chiefly from Rajput or other Hindu tribes.
The Jut does not occupy Lower Sind, and they are not found in Gujerat. The Jut is, however, the prevailing population iu all Upper Sind, and their tongue is the language of the country. They were once the aristocracy of the land, but latterly have been dominated over by other races, and thus have lost somewhat of their position as the higher classes of the society. In the south and west of the Panjab, too, they bare long been subject to Muhammadan rulers. But latterly, as the Sikh, they became rulers of the whole Panjab and of the country beyond as far as the Upper Jumna, in all which territories they are still in every way the dominant population.
In the earlier ages there 'were two chief Rajput races in Hindustan, viz. the Surya and tho Chandra, to which were added the four Agnicula,— iu all six. The other races were subdivisions of the Surya and Chandra, or the &Lelia of Indo Scythic origin, who, before the Muhammadan era, found no difficulty in obtaining a place, though a low one, amongst the thirty-six regal races of Rajasthan.
The Ganges valley seems to have been peopled by several races long before the Aryan Hindus arrived there, and all the conquerors who have entered India from the north-west have striven to occupy the fertile valley of this great river.
Hindu poets have celebrated its praises in s multifude of songs; the river is fabled in their mythology to bo the goddess Ganga ; they long to see it, to bathe in its waters and be purified from their sins, and at last to die on ita banks, or to have their bones conveyed to it from the most remote parts of India. No Hindu raises such s question 8.13 in 2 Kings v. 12, for the Ganges is recognised as the most efficacious of all the Hindu sacred rivers. On its banks have dwelt the chief of the religious reformers whom India has seen. Its valley was the cradle of Buddhisni, from its riso in the sixth century before Christ, gradually spread over the whole of India, was extended by Atoka to Kaahmir and Kabul shortly after Alexander's invaaion, and now prevails amongs.t many millions of men. Numerous dynasties have ruled there. The Andra race WEI in power in the Gangetic province of India about the beginning of the Christian cm, but the moat enduring was the great Kshatriya farnily that long ruled at Indmprastlia, and terminated with Prithi raj in A.n. 1193, when overthrmvn and slain by Shaltab-ud-Din, Ghori.
In the northern border districts of British India, into which intruding races hero come, tho dia tinctions of nationalities are very marked. In the vicinity of Darjiling are Muliaminadan and Hindu natives from the plains of India; the Ithutia from Bhutan, Tibet, and Sikkim ; the Lepella and the Mechi. The Lepcha have no religious or race distinctions, but they speak of theinselve.s tut belonging to tho clans Burphung phulio, Udding phnho, Thurjokli phuho, Sundyang, Sugnt, Tung yeld, Lueksom, Therim, and Songme. Captain J. D. Herbert observes of them, that at his first interview with the Lepcha, he saw that they were the same people whom lie had /net with at Nialang, at Jahnablii, at Shipchi on the Sutlej, in Hangrang, and at Lari in Ladakh. They am, in fact, the people who have been called Chinese Tartars, and of the same race as the Tibetans, being a family of the great division of Elenth Tartars or Kalmuk.
The people of Nepal arrange themselves into many sections, viz. Gurrung, rear sheep; Gallia, rear buffaloes; Kami, blacksmiths; Sark', tanners; Newad, shopkeepers ; Domai, tailors ; and the Murmi, Yakka, Mungar Brahman, Khumbhu, and Nimbhu, who are principally cultivators.
In the plains of the Darjiling district, the Rajbansi and Bengali are in equal numbem The Rajbansi are Koch or Cooch of the same descent as the raja of Koch -Behar. Hence they call themselves Rajbansi.
The Mechi inhabit that portion of the Terai which lies under the hills. They aro migratory, and live by cultivating tho virgin soil ; they bare no caste distinctions.