Page:Comparative grammar of the languages of further India.djvu/151

Rh one of fierce, black, degraded, savage tribes whom they called Ásuras, Rákshasas, &c.; the other, a people who lived in cities and possessed wealth, and whose women were fair, whom they termed Nágas, or serpent-worshippers, and who doubtless belonged to the great Takshak, or "serpent-race" of Scythia. Under the continued pressure of the advancing Aryan invaders, these Turanian tribes were driven back, carrying before them in their turn the feeble and scattered remnants of the black aboriginal race, who were either exterminated or found a last refuge in the most inaccessible forests and mountains, where their miserable descendants may be found to this day in some of the scanty, hardly human, outcast tribes of central India.

But the Turanians to a certain extent held their ground and retained possession of the uplands, and they still form a large element of the population in many parts of India. In some cases they have lost their native language, and have adopted the religion and customs of their conquerors, so that in fact to outward appearance they are only low-caste Hindus. Large bodies of them, however, especially in the Vindyan plateau of central India, still retain their nationality, their language, and to a great extent their race purity. They are now generally classed as Kolarians, but are subdivided into several tribes, of which