Linguistic Survey of India- Vol.IX Indo-Aryan Family Central Group Part-III, 1907.

Abstract

P art I I I of Volume IX of the Linguistic Sur.vey is in reality a supplement to Part I I which, deals with Rajasthani and Gujarati. It is devoted to the numerous Bhil languages of Central and Western India and to the Khandesi spoken in the district of Khandesh. Certain of the so-called ‘ Gipsy Languages,’ viz., Baori, Habura, Paradhi, and Siyalgiri, have been discovered to be varieties of Bhili and have been classed with that language. These are spoken by wandering tribes in widely separated parts of India, some of the specimens coming from Lahore in the Punjab, while another comes from Midnapore in Bengal. The volume concludes with an account of the^jjjalect of the wandering carriers known as Banjaras or Labhanas. This is evidently a corrupt form of. the Rajasthani spoken in the North-West of Rajputana. The sections dealing with Bhili and with Khandesi have been in the .first instanoe prepared by my Assistant Dr. Sten Konow, of Christiania, Norway; I have edited them throughout, and have added a few remarks here and thete. As General Editor of the series of volumes of the Linguistic Survey of India, I am responsible for all statements contained in these sections. The remainder of this part has been prepared by myself. I take this opportunity of recording my obligations to Mr. A. H. A. Simcox of the Indian Civil Service for a valuable series of excellent and carefully prepared specimens' illustrating several of the Bombay Bhil dialects. The border country between Rajputana, Central India, the Central Provinces, and the Bombay Presidency is inhabited by many tribes known under various names, such as Bhils, Ahirs, and so forth. Their home may be described as an irregularly shaped triangle, with the apex in the Aravalli Hills, and the base roughly corresponding to the Area within whic spo e south-eastern frontier of the district of Khandesh. The frontier line goes south-westwards from the Aravalli Bange, including the south-eastern corner of Sirohi, and, farther to the south, including Mahikantha and the eastern portion of Rewakantha. The population of the Surat "District and the Surat Agency, and of the Nawsari division of the Baroda State, is mostly Bhil, and we also find them in Thana and Jawhar, and even further south, in Ahmednagar. Prom the south of Dharampur, in the Surat Agency, the frontier-of the Bhil-Ahir country proper turns first eastward and then northward including the north-western strip of the district of Nasik. It then crosses Nasik, leaving the greater— southern—part of that district to Marathi, follows the southeastern frontier of Khandesh, includes a strip of the Melkapur Taluka of Buldana and the Burhanpur Talml of Nimar. Thence it turns northwards to thtf Nerbudda. In Bhopawar, however, Nimarx is spoken in a large, circular, area to the west of the Nimar district. The frontier line then "follows the Nerbudda towards the east, and then goes northwards to the Vindhya, where it turns westwards up to near the town of Indore, whence it runs in an irregular'bow up to the Aravalli Hills, including the western port ion of Jhabua and Ratlam, Banswara and the west of Partabgarh, Dungarpur and the hilly tracts of the Mewalr State.