Page:Provincial geographies of India (Volume 1).djvu/130

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110
THE PEOPLE:
[ch.

the west of the Jamna he held to be of the same type as the bulk of the inhabitants of the United Provinces, and this type he called Aryo-Dravidian. Finally the races occupying the hills in the north-east and the adjoining part of Kashmir were of Mongol extraction, a fact which no one will dispute. Of the Indo-Aryan type Sir Herbert Risley wrote: "The stature is mostly tall, complexion fair, eyes dark, hair on face plentiful, head long, nose narrow and prominent, but not specially long." He believed that the Panjab was occupied by Aryans, who came into the country from the west or north-west with their wives and children, and had no need to contract marriages with the earlier inhabitants. The Aryo-Dravidians of the United Provinces resulted from a second invasion or invasions, in which the Aryan warriors came alone and had to intermarry with the daughters of the land, belonging to the race which forms the staple of the population of Central India and Madras. This theory was based on measurements of heads and noses, and it seems probable that deductions drawn from these physical characters are of more value than any evidence based on the use of a common speech. But it is hard to reconcile the theory with the facts of history even in the imperfect shape in which they have come down to us, or to believe that Sakas, Yuechi, and White Huns (see historical section) have left no traces of their blood in the province. If such there are, they may perhaps be found in some of the tribes on both sides of the Salt Range, such as Gakkhars, Janjuas, A wans, Tiwanas, Ghebas, and Johdras, who are tine horsemen and expert tent-peggers, not "tall heavy men without any natural aptitude for horsemanship," as Sir Herbert Risley described his typical Panjabi (p. 59 of his book).

Languages.— In the area dealt with in this book no less than eleven languages are spoken, and the dialects