‘All along the Eastern and Northern frontier of Bengal we meet with a fringe of compact tribes of the short-headed or brachycephalic type, who are beyond question Mongolian. Starting from this area, and travelling up the plains of India north-westward towards the frontier of the Panjab, we observe a gradual but steady increase of the dolichocephalic type of head, which Herr Penka claims as one of the chief characteristics of the original Aryans. Bengal itself is mostly mesaticephalic, and dolichocephaly only appears in some of the Dravidian tribes. In Bihâr dolichocephalic averages are more numerous; in Oudh and the North-Western Provinces this type is universal, and it reaches its maximum in the Panjab. Assuming that Herr Penka has correctly determined the original Aryan type to be dolichocephalic, and that the theory of caste propounded above is the [[cxxxii]]true one, these are just the results which might be looked for. According to the French anthropologists, the shape of the head is the most persistent of race characters, and the one which offers the greatest resistance to the levelling influence of crossing.
“ ‘A possible objection may be disposed of here. It may be argued that if the Dravidians are dolichocephalic, the prevalence of this character in North Western India may be accounted for by the assumption of an intermixture of Dravidian blood. But if this were so the proportion and degree of dolichocephaly would increase as we approach the Dravidian area, instead of diminishing, as is actually the case. Moreover, it is impossible to suppose that the races of the North-West, if originally brachycephalic, could have acquired their dolichocephalic form of head from the Dravidians, without at the same time acquiring the characteristic Dravidian nose and the distinctive Dravidian colour.’
The Negritic colour amongst Brâhmans. 21. “The last paragraph may, I presume, be taken as denying the admixture of Dravidian blood. I have shown that a Dravidian nose is far from uncommon in the highest castes. As regards colour there is a mass of evidence hostile to Mr. Risley’s latter argument. Professor Max Müller, in his Chips from a German Workshop, states:—‘There are at present Brâhmans, particularly in the South of India, as black as Pariahs.’ Mr. Nesfield, the most careful student of castes in Upper India, states:—‘The great majority of Brâhmans are not of lighter complexion or of finer and better bred features than any [[cxxxiii]]other caste.’ Even Kanaujiya Brâhmans, who are the priests of the upper classes in Bengal, are admitted by Mr. Risley to be ‘wanting in the peculiar fineness of feature and intellectual cast of countenance which distinguishes the higher grades of Brâhmans in other parts of India.’ On the other hand, Mr. Sherring in his “Hindu Castes and Tribes” comments on the high caste appearance of the Chamâr caste. Similar testimony to the good looks of the Chamârs in certain parts of India comes to us from the Central Provinces, where they are said to be lighter in colour than the members of other cultivating castes, while some of the men and many of the women are remarkably handsome. In Eastern Bengal, again, Dr. Wise describes the caste as ‘less swarthy than the average Chandâl, and infinitely fairer, with a more delicate and intellectual caste of features, than many Srotriya Brâhmans.’ The foregoing quotation comes from Mr. Risley’s excellent article on the Chamâr caste.
“One of the first great crimes which, as a Magistrate, I had to investigate in Bengal, was a murder committed by a Jessor Chamâr, who had spent years in the villages to the south of Calcutta in the character of a Brâhman. He at last seduced a young widow from her home, and murdered her for the sake of her jewellery a few miles before reaching his house in Jessor. He was tall and handsome with a clear olive complexion, and I afterwards noticed that some other members of his caste were equally fair. Young men of the Dusâdh caste are often rather good looking, and many of them have a yellowish-brown complexion. [[cxxxiv]]
The facial angle. A single type, a mixed one, universal. 22. “The facial angle of Cuvier, though somewhat discredited by later anthropologists on account of its failure to define minor distinctions of feature, is still a race test that has many advantages. It measures, as is known, the angle made by the plane of the face with the plane of the base of the skull. It is acute in the Negritic peoples, and about a right angle in the Caucasian. Mr. Risley, adopting the notation of Retz, gives the following figures:— [[cxxxv]]
| Bengal Proper. | Bihâr. | North-Western Provinces. | Panjab. | ||||
| Name of caste. | Average Index. | Name of caste. | Average Index. | Name of caste. | Average Index. | Name of caste. | Average Index. |
| Brâhman | 67·1 | Bind | 69·2 | Kshatriya | 69·6 | Gûjar | 70·7 |
| Sadgop | 67·0 | Brâhman | 63·7 | Goâla | 69·4 | Sikh | 70·4 |
| Bauri | 66·4 | Dusâdh | 68·7 | Pâsi | 69·4 | Biloch | 70·3 |
| Mâlê or Asal Pahâria | 66·1 | Bâbhan | 68·6 | Brâhman | 68·7 | Arora | 69·3 |
| Mâl Pahâria | 66·1 | Goâla | 68·3 | Bhar | 67·9 | Awan | 69·0 |
| Muchi | 66·1 | Kurmi | 67·8 | Kurmi | 67·9 | Khatri | 68·8 |
| Mâl | 65·8 | Musahar | 67·2 | Kâchhi | 67·7 | Chûhra | 68·8 |
| Chandâl | 65·8 | Chamâr | 67·1 | Musahar | 67·7 | Muchi | 68·7 |
| Kaibartta | 65·4 | Kahâr | 66·6 | Lodha | 67·6 | Pathân | 67·1 |
| Râjbansi | 65·1 | Maghaiya Dom | 65·7 | Barhi | 67·1 | ||
| Goâla | 65·1 | Koeri | 66·9 | ||||
| Pod | 65·0 | Chamâr | 66·9 | [[cxxxvi]] | |||
| Bâgdi | 64·9 | Kâyasth | 66·7 | ||||
| Kâyasth | 64·2 | Bâbhan | 66·6 | ||||
| Muhammadan | 63·7 | Kewat | 66·6 | ||||
| Guriya | 66·4 | ||||||
| Banya | 66·3 | ||||||
| Kanjar | 66·3 | ||||||
| Lohâr | 66·2 | ||||||
| Kol | 66·1 | ||||||
| Thâru | 65·9 | ||||||
| Dom | 65·7 | ||||||
| Khatri | 65·5 | ||||||
“It thus appears that in Bengal the Brâhman is at one end of the scale and the cultivated Kâyasth at the other, whilst at the top of the Bihâr list the fisherman, priest, farm labourer, landlord and cowherd are in close proximity. In the North-Western Provinces the Kshatriya, the Râjput soldier and the Khatri, the Râjput trader, stand at opposite extremes; rat-catchers, carpenters, dancing women, cultivators, toddy-drawers and priests coming in between. No evidence could be more convincing, if anthropometry has any meaning. The Indian races and tribes in the valley of the Ganges from the Afghân frontier to the Bay of Bengal are so absolutely intermingled in blood, that it is impossible to discriminate between the skull characteristics of the castes or functional guilds which have grown up under later Brâhmanical usage.” [[cxxxix]]