Page:The tribes and castes of the Central Provinces of India (IA tribescastesofce01russ).pdf/37

I CONSTITUTION OF THE POPULATION 7 an unexplored country of inaccessible mountains and im- penetrable forests, inhabited by the savage tribes of Gonds from whoin it took its name. Hindu kingdoms were, it is truc, established over a large part of its territory in the first centuries of our era, but these were not accompanied by the settlement and opening out of the country, and were subse- quently subverted by the Dravidian Gonds, who perhaps invaded the country in large numbers from the south between the ninth and twelfth centuries. Hindu immigration ande colonisation from the surrounding provinces occurred at a later period, largely under the encouragement and auspices of Gond kings. The consequence is that the existing popu- lation is very diverse, and is made up of elements belong- ing to many parts of India. The people of the northern Districts came from Bundelkhand and the Gangetic plain, and here are found the principal castes of the United Provinces and the Punjab. The western end of the Nerbudda valley and Retiil were coloniscd from Malwa and Central India. Berar and the Nagpur plain fell to the Marithas, and one of the most important Maratha States, the Bhonsla kingdom, had its capital at Nagpur. Cultivators from western India came and settled on the land, and the existing population are of the same castes as the Maratha country or Bombay. But prior to the Maratha conquest Berar and the Nimar District of the Central Provinces had been included in the Mughal empire, and traces of Mughal rule remain in a sub- stantial Muhammadan element in the population, To the south the Chinda District runs down to the Godavari river, and the southern tracts of Chanda and Bastar State are largely occupied by Telugu immigrants from Madras. To the east of the Nagpur plain the large landlocked area of Chhattisgarh in the upper basin of the Mahinadi was colonised at an early period by Hindus from the cast of the United Provinces and Oudh, probably coming through Jubbulpore. A dynasty of the Haihaivansi Rajpit clan established itself at Ratanpur, and owing to the inaccessible nature of the country, protected as it is on all sides by a natural rampart of hill and forest, was able to pursue a tranquil existence untroubled by the wars and political vicissitudes of northern India. The population of Chhattisgarh thus constitutes te