s of the people: the Dravidian tribes, who formerly
held the country; Hindi-speaking immigrants from the north and
north-west into Saugor, Damoh, the Nerbudda valley and the open
country of Mandla and Seoni; Rajasthani-speaking immigrants from
Central India into Nimar, Betul and parts of Hoshangabad, Narsinghpur
and Chhindwara; Marathi-speaking immigrants from Bombay into Berar,
the Mahratta districts and the southern tahsil of Betul; the Telugu
castes in the Sironcha and Chanda tahsil of Chanda and the south of
Bastar; and the Hindu immigrants into Chhattisgarh, who are supposed
to have arrived many centuries ago when the Haihaya dynasty of
Ratanpur rose into power.

_Language_.--Owing to the diversity of race, the diversity of language
is equally great. Thirty languages and a hundred and six dialects are
found in the Central Provinces alone, and twenty-eight languages and
sixty-eight dialects in Berar. The chief of these languages are
Western Hindi, Eastern Hindi, Rajasthani, Marathi, Oriya, Telugu and
Dravidian dialects. Of these last the chief dialects are Gondi, Oraon
or Kurukh, Kandhi and Kanarese, of which Gondi is by far the most
important. There are also the Munda languages, of which the chief are
Korku, Kharia and Munda or Kol. The chief languages of Berar are
Marathi, Urdu, Gondi, Banjari, Hindi, Marwari, Telugu, Korku and
Gujarati.

_History_.--The authentic history of the greater part of the country
embraced in the Central Provinces does not begin till the 16th century
A.D. By the people of northern India the country was known as Gondwana,
after the savage tribes of Gonds by whom it was inhabited. The Mussulman
invaders of the Deccan passed it by, not caring to enter its mountain
fastnesses and impenetrable forests; though occasional inscriptions show
that parts of it had fallen from time to time under the dominion of one
or other of the great kingdoms of the north, e.g. of Asoka, of the
Guptas of Maghada, or of the ancient Hindu kingdom of Vidarbha (Berar);
and inscriptions and numerous discoveries of coins prove that, during
the middle ages, the open spaces were occupied by a series of Rajput
dynasties. Of these the most important was that of the Haihayas of
Ratanpur, a family which, settled from time immemorial in the Nerbudda
valley, had towards the close of the 10th century succeeded the Pandava
dynasty of Maha Kosala (Chhattisgarh) and ruled, though from the