The Goands.—The central parts between Candeish and Orissa, the head-waters of the Nerbudda and Tapti on the west, and of the Godavery on the east, still require notice. Here the hill population is at its maximum, both in point of numbers and characteristics; and the Khond forms[147] of the Tamul re-appear under the name Goand. Of these we have specimens from—
a. The Gawhilghur mountains near Ellichpoor.
b. Chupprah.
c. Mundala in Gundwana, or the Goand country.
Such are the chief hill-populations; which, although they belong to Tamulian stock, differ as to the extent to which they carry outward and visible signs of their origin. Some, like the Rajmahali, are merely separated geographically; and, perhaps, not even that. Others, like the Khonds of Orissa, are contrasted with the Tamuls of the south, by their inferior and social condition, and their non-Brahminical creeds. The Minas and Bhils differ in language; whilst the Ramusis and Berdars, probably, exhibit transitional forms of speech. The Tudas and Chenchwars surrounded by Telingas and Tamuls, as the Khonds and Goands are by Udiyas and Mahrattas, are merely the population of the parts around them with a primitive polity and religion.
The lettered languages of the Dekhan, where the Tamul character is unequivocal, but where the civilizational influences have chiefly been Hindú, are spoken in continuity from Chicacole, east, and the parts about Goa, west, to Cape Comorin, i.e., in the Madras Presidency, and in the countries of Mysore, Travancore, and the coasts of Malabar[148] and Coromandel. Of these, the most northern—beginning on the eastern coast—is—
The Telinga or Telugu.—Spoken from the parts about Chicacole to Pulicat, where it is succeeded by—
The Tamul Proper.—The language of the Coromandel coast and the parts of the interior as far as Coimbatore. Each of these tongues has a double form, one for literature, and one for common use; the former being called the High, the latter the Low, Tamul or Telugu, as the case may be, and the creed which it embodies being either Brahminism, or some modification of it.
In Travancore and on the Malabar coast the language is—
The Malayalma or Malayalam—and in the greater part of Mysore—