Indian Antiquary Vol 15

Author(s): John Faithfull Fleet, Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 31

JANUARY, 1886.)
BOOK NOTICES.
25
subjected, and by the numerous military adventurers who flocked thither for service, or were invited by prospects of advancement or more ambitious aspirations. The first groups of arms described are those of the Aboriginal and Non. Aryan Races, comprising the bows and arrows, clubs and axes, found amongst the earliest inhabitants of the Mainland and the Islands. Leaving the latter he takes a rapid glance at the pre-Aryan races of the Mainland, our information regarding which is too imperfect to admit of an accurate classification. We can point, however, to some of the most characteristic groups, such as the pastoral races represented by the Santâls, Ahirs, and Kurambars; the more warlike and predatory classes like the Bhils, Gdjars, Kolis, Râmosis, Bedars and Marawârs; and the people of the north-eastern tracts who have been described by Colonel Dalton, and to whom the general term of Kolarians has been given. These distinctions again are all more or less fused by the influence of language, as they are connected on the one hand with the Hindi, and on the other with the Dravidian tongues. The weapons in use among all these will be found to exhibit considerable uniformity arising out of the earliest requirements of civilized man. Its normal form is that of the staff or club which supports him in his walk, and acts as his lever for removing obstacles, or repels the assault of an opponent, whether man or beast. A flint inserted at the end becomes a battle-axe or hatchet, and the sharpened edge is the prototype of the eword. With a shorter piece in his left hand he warde off the blows of an assailant, and by increasing its breadth it becomes a shield, and protects him from a hostile arrow. When thick and heavy it serves as a missile; with a slender slip or more convenient reed propelled from a bow he strikes the more distant game beyond reach of the throwing stick.
Among the earliest of these primitive expedients is that represented in the author's illustrations by Nos. 1 and 4 of Group I. at p. 73. It appears to be the primitive weapon of the hill tribes of
The pre-Aryan population has been variously classified by different writers. In the uncertainty that prevails as to origin the simplest groups appear to be those of the pastoral, predatory, and agricultural. Underneath these lie a widely diffused servile class, probably the oldest of all, and represented by the MhArs, Mångs, MAlas, Pariahs, Palayars and various wild tribes, all of which still retain marked peculiarities of language. In Southern India where the Dravidian tongue has effaced all earlier dialects, these remnants of the older races have failed to acquire some of its most remarkable phonetic sounds. Berghaus pute the insignificant group of the Todas of the Nilgiris in the second place of his enumeration. Their numbers never exceeded a thoumand, and they are now much fewer. They belong clearly to the pastoral division, and speak a very rude Dravidian dialect, and will be seen to fall naturally
India, Gonds, Kolis, &c.; as well as of the native inhabitants of Australia. It is made of heavy wood of extreme hardness, rarely of metal, from 18 inches to 2 feet long, and from 2 to 3 inches broad, more or less curved, generally flat: some are hooped with iron and with three or four spikes of the same metal at the extremity to make them more deadly. The hest specimens exactly resemble the Australian Bomerang, and differ in no respect from the weapon used by the ancient Egyptian sportsmen as depicted in the tombs of the kinga at Thebes, an example of which, found in a mummy pit, is preserved in the British Museum. The form differs somewhat in different parts of India, that of the southern predatory tribes, as the Marawârs and Krallars, becomes narrower at one end, terminating in a knob or pommel to give a firmer grip in throwing. These are of different sizes, some in my possession being only 22 inches, but a specimen at Sandringham (sce Plate, fig. 2) measures 234 inches round the curve. They are of a very heavy dark-coloured wood. The collection of the Prince of Wales contains one of fine steel (Plate, fig. 2a) 19 inches long, and 2) broad at the broadest part, not much thicker than a sword blade, with a foliage pattern of silver running along the centre, a very formidable wea. pon; and also one of ivory about the same size, probably intended more for show than use. Not improbably it may be an instance of the radana. kulisa mentioned in the Nagamangala copper plates, which Prof. Eggeling has translated "ivory weapons," and which Prof. Dowson sug. gests were kept as trophies of victory by great princes.. The name given to this missile by the Kolis of Gujarat is katariya (see Plate, fig. 1) but in the Dravidian dialects it is called valai or valai, tadi bent stick) by the Kallars and Marawirs. Some specimens from Tinnevelly in the India Museum are labelled katárt." In some parts of the country the wooden throw-stick has given place to a small sharp hazchet which is thrown with great precision. The Gonds are described by Captain Forsyth as killing pea-fowls, bares, and small deer, by throwing the little axe, which they under Prof. Huxley's Physical Distribution noticed further on.
In the list at p. 78, Group I. No. 4, said to be from Gujarat, is of this form.
3 The wood mort preferred is that called acht maram in Tamil (Hardwickia binata), but they are also made of & species of Diospyros or ebony tree.
ante, Vol. III. p. 152. • Handbook, p. 8i, Groupa II. II. I have never met with this name, but it nearly resembles the term katariya,.word, however, not found in the Gujarati or Marathi Diotionarios, used for the bomerang in GujarAt. and is nearly identical with the name katar or határt given to the dagker with the H-shaped handle worn in the girdle by the military classes throughout India, said to be derived from Sanskrit. See Shakespeare's Hind. Dict. &. v.
of this theme bien, and reprand varieties of lan hann erfaced