Risley, Herbert H.; Crooke, William [Editor]: The people of India: being an attempt to trace the progress of the national mind in its various aspects, as reflected in the nation’s literature from the earliest times to the present day ; with copious extracts from the best writers (Calcutta [u.a.], 1915)

40

PEOPLE OE INDIA

gives the real clue to its origin, and stamps the Aryo-Dravidian
as racially different from the Indo-Aryan, is to be found in
the proportions of the nose. The average index runs in an
unbroken series from 73-0 in the Bhuinhar or Babhan of Hindu-
stan and 73'2 in the Brahman of Bihar to 86 in the Hindustani
Chamar and 887 in the Musahar of Bihar. The order thus
established corresponds substantially with the scale of social
precedence independently ascertained. At the top of the list
are the Bhuinhars, who rank high among the territorial
aristocracy of Hindustan and Bihar; then come the Brahmans,
followed at a slight but yet appreciable interval by the clerkly
Kayasths with an index of 74/8; while down at the bottom the
lower strata of Hindu society are represented by the Chamar,
who tans hides and is credibly charged with poisoning cattle,
and the foul-feeding Musahar who eats pigs, snakes, and
jackals, and whose name is popularly derived from his penchant
for field-rats. The seriations tell the same tale as the averages,
and mark the essential distinction between the Aryo-Dravidian
and Indo-Aryan types. The Hindustani Brahmans, with a
slightly lower mean index than the Chuhras of the Punjab,
have a far larger proportion of the broad noses, which point to
an admixture of Dravidian blood.

(iii) The statistics of height lead to a similar conclusion.
The mean stature of the Aryo-Dravidians ranges from 166
centimetres in the Brahmans and Bhuinhars to 159 in the
Musahar, the corresponding figures in the Indo-Aryan
being i74'8 and 165"8. The one begins where the other
leaves off.

The Mongolo-Dravidian or Bengali type occupies the delta
of the Ganges and its tributaries from the
Mongoio-^iavi lan conf;nes 0f Bihar to the Bay of Bengal. It is

one of the most distinctive types in India,
and its members may be recognized at a glance throughout the
wide area where their remarkable aptitude for clerical pursuits
and their keen sense of family obligations have procured them
employment. Within its own habitat the type extends to the
Himalayas on the north and Assam on the east, and probably
includes the bulk of the population of Orissa. The western
limit coincides approximately with the hilly country of Chutia
Nagpur and Western Bengal.

(i) The broad head of the Bengali, of which the mean index
varies from 79'0 in the Brahman to 83-0 in the Rajbansi Magh,
effectually differentiates the type from the Indo-Aryans or