ation and be admitted as
a body into the hierarchy of caste, ranking above the impure castes
but below the Hindu cultivators. This is the position of the Gonds,
Baigas and other tribes in these tracts. While, if the Hindus come
only as colonists and not as rulers, the indigenous residents may
retain the overlordship of the soil and the landed proprietors among
them may be formed into a caste ranking with the good cultivating
castes of the Aryans. Instances of such are the Khandaits of Orissa,
the Binjhwars of Chhattisgarh and the Bhilalas of Nimar and Indore.

4. The Bhuiyas a Kolarian tribe.

The Bhuiyas have now entirely forgotten their own language and speak
Hindi, Uriya and Bengali, according as each is the dominant vernacular
of their Hindu neighbours. They cannot therefore on the evidence
of language be classified as a Munda or Kolarian or as a Dravidian
tribe. Colonel Dalton was inclined to consider them as Dravidian: [361]
"Mr. Stirling in his account of Orissa classes them among the Kols;
but there are no grounds that I know of for so connecting them. As I
have said above, they appear to me to be linked with the Dravidian
rather than with the Kolarian tribes." His account, however, does
not appear to contain any further evidence in support of this view;
and, on the other hand, he identifies the Bhuiyas with the Savars
or Saonrs. Speaking of the Bendkars or Savars of Keonjhar, he says:
"It is difficult to regard them otherwise than as members of the great
Bhuiya family, and thus connecting them we link the Bhuiyas and Savaras
and give support to the conjecture that the former are Dravidian." But
it is now shown in the _Linguistic Survey_ that the Savars have a Munda
dialect. In Chota Nagpur this has been forgotten, and the tribe speak
Hindi or Uriya like the Bhuiyas, but it remains in the hilly tracts of
Ganjam and Vizagapatam. [362] Savara is closely related to Kharia and
Juang, the dialects of two of the most primitive Munda tribes. The
Savars must therefore be classed as a Munda or Kolarian tribe, and
since Colonel Dalton identified the Bhuiyas with the Savars of Chota
Nagpur, his evidence appears really to be in favour of the Kolarian
origin of the Bhuiyas. He notes further that the ceremony of naming
children among the Bhuiyas is identical with that of the Mundas and
Hos. [363] Mr. Mazumdar writes: "Judging from the external appearance
and general physical type one would be sure to mistake a Bhuiya f