The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India | Page 2

Things Indian, Captain Forsyth's Highlands of Central India (Messrs. Chapman & Hall), Messrs. Yule and Burnell's Hobson-Jobson (Mr. Crooke's edition), Professor Hopkins' Religions of India, the Rev. E.M. Gordon's Indian Folk-Tales (Elliot & Stock), Messrs. Sewell and Dikshit's Indian Calendar, Mr. Brennand's Hindu Astronomy, and the late Rev. Father P. Dehon's monograph on the Oraons in the Memoirs of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.
Ethnological works on the people of the Central Provinces are not numerous; among those from which assistance has been obtained are Sir C. Grant's Central Provinces Gazetteer of 1871, Rev. Stephen Hislop's Notes on the Aboriginal Tribes of the Central Provinces, Colonel Bloomfield's Notes on the Baigas, Sir Charles Elliott's Hoshangabad Settlement Report, Sir Reginald Craddock's Nagpur Settlement Report, Colonel Ward's Mandla Settlement Report, Colonel Lucie Smith's Chanda Settlement Report, Mr. G.W. Gayer's Lectures on Criminal Tribes, Mr. C.W. Montgomerie's Chhindwara Settlement Report, Mr. C.E. Low's Balaghat District Gazetteer, Mr. E.J. Kitts' Berar Census Report of 1881, and the Central Provinces Census Reports of Mr. T. Drysdale, Sir Benjamin Robertson and Mr. J.T. Marten.
The author is indebted to Sir J.G. Frazer for his kind permission to make quotations from The Golden Bough and Totemism and Exogamy (Macmillan), in which the best examples of almost all branches of primitive custom are to be found; to Dr. Edward Westermarck for similar permission in respect of The History of Human Marriage, and The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas (Macmillan); to Messrs. A. & C. Black in respect of the late Professor Robertson Smith's Religion of the Semites; to Messrs. Heinemann for those from M. Salomon Reinach's Orpheus; and to Messrs. Hachette et Cie and Messrs. Parker of Oxford for those from La Cit�� Antique of M. Fustel de Coulanges. Much assistance has also been obtained from Sir E. B. Tylor's Early History of Mankind and Primitive Culture, Lord Avebury's The Origin of Civilisation, Mr. E. Sidney Hartland's Primitive Paternity, and M. Salomon Reinach's Cultes, Mythes et Religions. The labours of these eminent authors have made it possible for the student to obtain a practical knowledge of the ethnology of the world by the perusal of a small number of books; and if any of the ideas put forward in these volumes should ultimately be so fortunate as to obtain acceptance, it is to the above books that I am principally indebted for having been able to formulate them. Other works from which help has been obtained are M. Emile Senart's Les Castes dans I'Inde, Professor W. E. Hearn's The Aryan Household, and Dr. A.H. Keane's The World's Peoples. Sir George Grierson's great work, The Linguistic Survey of India, has now given an accurate classification of the non-Aryan tribes according to their languages and has further thrown a considerable degree of light on the vexed question of their origin. I have received from Mr. W. Crooke of the Indian Civil Service (retired) much kind help and advice during the final stages of the preparation of this work. As will be seen from the articles, resort has constantly been made to his Tribes and Castes for filling up gaps in the local information.
Rai Bahadur Hira Lal was my assistant for several years in the taking of the census of 1901 and the preparation of the Central Provinces District Gazetteers; he has always given the most loyal and unselfish aid, has personally collected a large part of the original information contained in the book, and spent much time in collating the results. The association of his name in the authorship is no more than his due, though except where this has been specifically mentioned, he is not responsible for the theories and deductions from the facts obtained. Mr. Pyare Lal Misra, barrister, Chhindwara, was my ethnographic clerk for some years, and he and Munshi Kanhya Lal, late of the Educational Department, and Mr. Aduram Chandhri, Tahsildar, gave much assistance in the inquiries on different castes. Among others who have helped in the work, Rai Bahadur Panda Baijnath, Diwan of the Patna and Bastar States, should be mentioned first, and Babu Kali Prasanna Mukerji, pleader, Saugor, Mr. Gopal Datta Joshi, District Judge, Saugor, Mr. Jeorakhan Lal, Deputy-Inspector of Schools, and Mr. Gokul Prasad, Tahsildar, may be selected from the large number whose names are given in the footnotes to the articles. Among European officers whose assistance should be acknowledged are Messrs. C.E. Low, C.W. Montgomerie, A.B. Napier, A.E. Nelson, A.K. Smith, R.H. Crosthwaite and H.F. Hallifax, of the Civil Service; Lt.-Col. W.D. Sutherland, I.M.S., Surgeon-Major Mitchell of Bastar, and Mr. D. Chisholm.
Some photographs have been kindly contributed by Mrs. Ashbrooke Crump, Mrs. Mangabai Kelkar, Mr. G.L. Corbett, C.S., Mr. R.L. Johnston, A.D.S.P., Mr. J.H. Searle, C.S., Mr. Strachey, Mr. H.E. Bartlett, Professor L. Scherman of Munich, and the Diwan of Raigarh State.