INDIAN PEOPLES. For the anthropologist India is of remarkable interest. On its soil may still be met all grades of culture, from the savagery of hill and swamp to the urban civili zation born of river and plain, and all forms of human social aggregates, from the primitive family group or clan to the foreign-ruled prov inces with their magnificent and luxurious capi tals. here all forms of agriculture are to be found, from the burned-over forest plot to the ter raced hillside of the north; in the west and south the utilization of the desert by canals and tanks; all varieties of human dwellings, from the primi tive abode in tree and cave to magnificent palaces and temples; all forms of human government, from the primitive democracy and tribal anarchy to organized despotism of the civilized sort; all kinds of marriage, from polygamy to the strictest monogamy, and all varieties of both these sys tems, and of polyandry as well; as well as all forms of religion from the crudest animism and Shamanism to the agnosticism of certain develop ments of Buddhism. All these things have been invented, exploited, modified, improved, or de graded by members of the black, the brown, the yellow, and the white races of man for many thousands of rears; so that nowhere else in the world have so many millions of human beings done so many things at so many times in so many ways as in India. Remains of the indus try of Paleolithic man have been found almost everywhere throughout the peninsula, which makes India seem almost as old as the race of man itself. By far the most important peoples of India belong to the Aryan stock. They are responsible fora number of social and religious ideas and institutions, many of which are simply the expression of the mentality of the more northern and western Aryan in the process of, and after adaptation to, an Oriental and largely tropical environment. They never overcame the land by mere force of numbers, and their influ ence upon the pre-Hindu population was less racial than social and religious. Many primi tive tribes who took over the culture of their conquerors have become assimilated to the Aryan type while preserving intact their aboriginal speech. The complicated caste system (see CASTE) is largely, if not entirely. the result of the con tact of the Aryan invaders with the aboriginal population (Dravidian, Kelarian, etc.) of the peninsula, and of the efforts of the conquering race to preserve its purity as much as possible against miscegenation. It was very early domi nated by religious ideas, but recent investigations have shown that the lines of caste are not nearly so coincident with racial distinctions as had been assumed to be the ease. After the Aryans of India, the Dravidians (the civilized Tamils. Telugu., Kanarese, and Malayala ins) , the more or less civilized Kodagn, or Koorgs, and the tribes of the Nilgiris, Central India, Orissa, part of Bengal, etc., such as the Irulas, Kurumhas, Bada :gas. Todas, Kotas, finder. Khonds, Gonds, Grams. and Maler, are the most important peoples. The various tribes of this stock illustrate all grades of human culture, from the jungle-dwelling Ku rumbas to the high developments of the civilized Tamils, who in literature, architecture, and other arts have shown great ability, and some of them notable capacity for assimilating both Hindu and Christian culture. The Dravidian area lies -chiefly in Southern India, but the Tamils have extended their influence over the twilit of Ceylon, forming a very important part of the population of that island.
Next to the Dravidians are to be considered the Kolarian peoples (Munda-Kols, Larka-Kols, Bhumij, Santals, Kharia, Juang, Saoras, etc.) of the Orissa-Bengal country and farther in land. The Santals represent the highest develop ment of Kolarian culture, and the Juangs per haps the lowest; while the others, except some of the Koh:, are more or less primitive. Like the Dravidians, the Kolarians, who arc looked upon by some as a people even older, have given to and taken from the ancient and modern Hin dus, and have also undoubtedly affected the physical type of both Dravidians and Aryans. In the Kolarians, as in the Dravidians, certain scholars detect traces of negroid intermixture, as well as much Aryan and some Jlongolian blood. The Veddas of Ceylon, by some ethnolo gists classified as a separate variety of man kind, certainly are one of the most primitive peoples now existing. They have been thought to represent the oldest non-negroid population of Indio, now disappearing. Some have sought to class the Todas of Southern Hindustan as a peculiar people. The islands off the Indian coast present some interesting tribes. The Se lungs of the Mergui Archipelago are classed by Deniker as 'Indosenians'; but this is rather doubtful, and a like uncertainty exists regard ing the inhabitants of the Nicobar Islands, the natives of the interior of Great Nicobar being savages of a rather primitive type. The :Min kopis or Andaman Islanders are characteristic Negritos, whose extension must at one time have been much greater. In Assam, Burma, and the Malaccan possessions and protectorates of Great Britain, a great variety of peoples are to be found, chiefly of Indo-Chinese, Proto-Malay, and so-called 'Indonesian' origin. besides the Sakai and Semang of Malacca, who are more or less Negritos. Among the most notable of these peo ples, outside of the Burmese, Karens, etc., are the Nagas of Manipur. the Chins of Burma and Ara kan, the Lushai tribes of Assam. the Shans of Northern Burma, and some other tribes.
The anthropological history of India includes the following successions and impacts of races: Pre-Dravidian and pre-Kolarian (with mixtures of Negrito and Proto-Malay) ; Aryan (invasion by the northwest as early as B.C. 2000 at least) ; Greek invasion, in the time of Alexander the Great (locally important in the Indus region, and more important as partly opening India to the Western world) ; Bactrian invasions of the northwest ( following the Greek. and of local im portanee) ; Mohammedan invasions (Ad.). 1000 ]-100). resulting in the establishment of many dynasties in the northwest and west, including the famous Mogul Empire of Delhi, and its suc cessors of the eighteenth century. which were broken up by the revolt of the Mahrattas and Sikhs, who restored Aryan supremacy. Besides those must he counted the Pathan influence in the northwest at various times, the Mongol (Tiheto Sinitie) influence from a comparatively early period in the Himalayan region. and Indo-Chinese and related influences in the northeast. Malayan elements also were present in the south and east, the later Arabo-Persian, Dutch, Portuguese. French, and British commercial, missionary, and political achievements. The Parsis (Persians), who are settled chiefly in Bombay, are of great. importance in spite of their limited numbers: the Jews have had some influence on the east coast; and the Chinese in Ceylon. Since coolie labor has been in dematel natives of India have tound their way to Madagascar, the \Vest Indies, Guiana, and Africa.