Indian Antiquary Vol 58

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 333

REMARKS ON THE ANDAMAN ISLANDERS AND THEIR COUNTRY.
BY SIR RICHARD C. TEMPLE, BT., C.B., O.I.E., F.S.A. Chief Commissioner, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, from 1894 to 1903.
(Continued from vol. LIV, page 94.)
V.
Amended Extracts from the Census Report, 1901.
(a) The Andamanese and their Island. In vol. LII, p. 151, of this Journal I gave my reasons for publishing here amended extracts from the Census Report of 1901 on the Andamans, as additional evidence regarding the Islands and the people inhabiting them. I also stated in the course of my remarks on Mr. A. R. Brown's observations on them why I held that such evidence as is available is still of importance.
I propose to divide the subject into the following heads : (a) the Andamanese and their Islands, (6) Geography, Meteorology, Geology, and History, (c) Ethnography. I propose further to add extracts from Mr. M. V. Portman's Reports on (d) the first dealings with the Onges in 1886, and (e) Proceedings in relation to the Jara was in 1902; both of which were first published as appendices to the Census Report1.
The land occupied by the Andamanese, generally known as the Andaman Islands, or more shortly as the Andamans, consists of the Great Andaman group and the Little Andaman, attached to each of which are a great number of smaller islands and islets. There is also the inhabited North Sentinel at some distance to the west of the general group. The Great Andaman consists of five main islands running from north to south thus - North Andaman, Middle Andaman, Baratâng, South Andaman, Rutland Island. All these are dove-tailed into each other by very narrow straits, not so wide as the ordinary rivers of a continent. The Little Andaman is situated at a considerable distance to the south. All round the Great Andaman are islands of every size ; to the east is Ritchie's Archipelago and to the west are the Labyrinth Islands. Every single island of the whole group is covered with a hilly jungle, the denseness of which must be seen to be appreciated, and passable only to its indigenous inhabitants. It is therefore impossible without much preparation and expense to traverse the interior of the islands, but happily it is quite easy to move about the deeply indented coasts, containing more harbours and snug anchorages than the whole Indian Peninsula. The length of the Great Andaman group is 156 miles : its average width is 9 to 10 miles and with the outlying islands some 25 miles. Two distant islands, Narcondam and Barren Island, to the east, are also included in the Andaman group, but they are both uninhabited.
At the time of the Census, 1901, the Andamanese, as a race apart, were held to be divided into Twelve Tribes all but one of which, the Jårawas, were friendly and most of them very mixed up with each other. In this mixed condition they were nomads, much given to rapid wandering for food all over the islands composing the Great Andaman, in which the Penal Settlement is situated. The names of the Twelve Tribes from North to South were, in the Bêa Language, Chåriâr, Kôra, TabÔ, Yère, Kede, Jûwai, Kol, Bôjigyâb, Balawa, Bêa, Onge (Little Andaman) and the wild hostile Tribe, Járawa.
The Tribal divisions of the Andamanese were well-known to the authorities of the Penal Settlement, excepting those of the Kôra and Tabộ, which were discovered during the Census operations. I was present when, in 1900, the Kora were discovered or, to speak more accurately, differentiated. They had been previously well known, themselves and their encampments, but had been considered to belong to the Chåriär. The discovery as to the true facts --that they were a separate Tribe with a territory and language of their own so late as 1900 is an example of the difficulty in procuring accurate information from such primitive s& ages as the Andamanese. It mattered nothing to them that Kôra men and women had
1 In this part of these remarks I will point Andamanese names and words as they appear in the Census Report, and will only mark the long vowels and d, e, o, *, , as peculiar sounds. Further diacritical marks are not necessary