Central part of the Deccan from Beder, north, to the lower-third of Mysore, south.
Conterminous with the Mahratta, Telinga, certain Pulinda dialects, the Udiya, the Telugu, the Kanarese, and the Tamul.
d. Tulava.—A dialect of the Kanarese. Spoken on the western coast between Goa and Mangalore, i.e. chiefly in the province of Kanara.
e. Malayálam.—South-west coast, from the limits of the Kanara to Cape Comorin.
f. Coorgi.—Spoken in Coorg. Unwritten.
g. Tudah.—Mountaineers of the Nilgherri Hills. Unwritten.
The remarkable custom of polyandria,[169] which has been noticed as one of the characters of the Seriform Tibetans, reappears among the Tamuls of Malabar. "The marriages of the Nayrs" (the caste next in dignity to the Brahmins), "so termed, are contracted when they are ten years of age; but the husband never lives with his wife, who remains in the home of her mother or brother, and is at liberty to choose any lover of a rank equal to her own. Her children are not considered as her husband's, nor do they inherit from him. Every man looks upon his sister's children, who alone are connected with him by ties of blood, as his heirs."—Prichard, iv. 161.
THE PULINDAS.
Area.—Irregular, and in the present state of our knowledge, discontinuous. Nearly encompassed by that of the Indo-Gangetic Indians. Chiefly mountain-ranges.
Physical appearance.—Exclusively of the first type, approaching by an increased zygomatic development, with the northern tribes, that of the Seriform Mongolidæ.