Indian Antiquary Vol 03

SR No.: 032495
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 420
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

Page 247

August, 1874.)
TRIBES AND LANGUAGES OF THE BOMBAY PRESIDENCY.
223.
territory. Aria kê, moreover, is the namo given Valabhi successors may to a certain extent to a great portion of the Marathê country by the have done the same. Indeed the Chinese traveller merchant Arrian, the navigator, thought to be the Hiwen Thgang, of the seventh century after Christ, contemporary of Ptolemy the geographer. The speaks of Chi-lo-a-ti-to of Fa-la-pi (Śilâditya of Åryas, consisting-except in the times of the Walabht) as having reigned in the Maratha coun. Buddhists and before the origination of the legend try about sixty years before his own visit to it. of the extinction of the Kshatriyas and Vaisyas, The Gupta, Ujjayini, Chola, Chaluky a, afterwards taken up perhaps to cover the shame Kalyani, Tagar, Chandrakuti, Panhaof their secession to Buddhism,---of Brahmang, 1a, Konkani, and Devagiri kings following Kshatriyas, and Vaisyas (originally the them, were all Hindus, showing & varying favour common people), were the governing and co- to Brahmans, Buddhists, and Jainas, as their nuoperative portion of the population, keeping the merous charters on stone and copper, which have darker-coloured races exterior to their circle, and been of late years deciphered, clearly show. It avoiding contact with them as the cause of defile. was in A.D. 1293 that the last king of Devament. Varna, often rendered caste, meant originally giri (or Devagadh, hodie Daulatåbåd) fell before
colour'; and the pandar, or the true white,' the Muhammadan arms; and it is from this date still professes to be the municipality of the Mara- that the principal infusion into Marath of the thả villages. The denomination of súdra, as new and spare elements of Persian and Arabic shown by Lassen, was originally that of a people words-afterwards facilitated by the Bijapur, Ahfound by the Aryas on the banks of the Indus, whom madnagar, and Golkonda sovereignties and the they devoted to servile labour. As they advanced Mughul conquests in the Dekhan-took place. to the southward, the Aryas gave the same name The Marâthâs are but of a middle stature as to analogous classes of people, using it, however, Indians, and somewhat of a copper colour, varying in a wider sense. The Marathâs in physiognomy in shade in different districts of the country. certainly considerably resemble the Dravidians to They use animal food to a considerable extent, the south. But it is difficult to suppose that the according to their means, abstaining, however, original tongue of both these peoples belonged to from the cow, like other Indian tribes. They use the same class of the Skythian languages. The wheat, barley, milliary, and pulses; but this they Sansksit, the language of the Åryas, is do more abundantly in the Dekhan than in the certainly the principal base of the Marâthí as it Konkan, where large quantities of rice are raised. now exists, though a faint Skythian or Turanian They are rather sparing in their dress, though element (having a sligat resemblance to that of | under the British Government visible improvethe Kolas and Santhals) is yet to be found ment in this matter is rapidly proceeding. Though in it. The predominance of Sanskrit in Marathi they are not skilled in agriculture, as the Gujahas doubtless been maintained by the circumstance rât cultivators, and are educated but to a limited that the governrnents of the provinces in which extent, they are a shrewd and intelligent, and, Marathi has been spoken frota time immemorial especially among the M&wals, the western face have in the main been favourable to the Sanskrit of the Gbags and the Konkan hills, a hardy and literature, or rather to the opinions formed upon active people. They have their own popular gode that literature, both Brahmanical and Buddhist. and demons, in addition to the principal deities of Only in the forest and wilder mountain districts the Hindu pantheon, and are generally enthusiastic have there been N & ya ks, or Chiefs, following in their worship, being at the same time fond of the Turanian worship of ghosts and demons, and religious pilgrimages, in connection with which with their people standing aloof from the Hindu they frequently suffer from cholera and other systems of faith and practice. Asoka, in the epidemics. They are noted for the observance of the middle of the third century before Christ, had most public of the festivals, as of the Dasard and doubtless imperial power over the Marathi country, Hout. Their peculiar religious feelings have been as well as the adjoining and remote provinces of much excited and sustained by the poets of their India; but this may have been quite consistent own provinces, especially by Tukar & ma, whose with the existence of local princes doing obeisance language is frequently that of marked excitement to him as their liege lord. The S&h or Sinha and specially intelligible to them. They seem for kings of Gnjarât, whose capital was Sinh&. some centuries at least to have indulged and cul pur, the modern Sihor, near Ghogh, about tivated an irregular military spirit, and to have the Christian era, ruled over large portions of the been more addicted (except in the case of some Marath country, as evinced by the large number of their chiefs) to crimes of violence and rapine of their coins which have been found at Junnar, than to sins of luxury and debauchery. Even in Elic hapur, Nagpur, and other places. Their the times of Ptolemy the geographer, their