The Mongoloids & The Mediterraneans

The Mongoloids The Mongoloid racial stock is mainly concentrated in the Himalayan borderland, partic­ularly in Laddakh, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and other parts of north-eastern India. Their original homeland was China from where they were pushed southward into the Malaya peninsula and Indonesia and infiltrated into India through the passes in the northern or eastern mountains.

The Mongoloid racial stock in India is divided into two types-the Palaeo-Mongoloids and the Tibeto-Mongoloids. The Palaeo-Mongoloids are further differentiated into broad­headed and long-headed sub-types. They live mostly along the fringes of the Himalayas, being especially numerous among the tribal population of Assam and the Myanmar border. The Tibeto-Mongoloids, supposed to have come from Tibet, mostly live in Bhutan and Sikkim, as well as in the north-western Himalayan and Trans-Himalayan regions.

The Mediterraneans This racial stock in India has been drawn from south-west Asia. It is from this region that during the third and the second millennium BC the Mediterranean race gradually spread over the surrounding areas. Those who entered India belonged to different, though related, types of the Mediterranean stock. They fall into three distinct groups: Palaeo-Mediterranean, Mediter­ranean and the so-called Oriental type. They are all long­headed, and they came to India with a fairly high level of civilisation. They are also believed to be the bearers of the earliest form of Hinduism into India.
The first and the most ancient of these Mediterranean races entering India have been termed as the Palaeo­Mediterraneans. They were medium-statured, dark-skinned, slightly built and long-headed people. It seems probable that these people introduced early agriculture in north­western India. They were, however, dislodged from their original homelands by subsequent streams of migration and pushed into central and southern India. The Palaeo­Mediterranean stock, together with other sub-types, today forms the bulk of the population of southern India and a considerable portion of the population of northern India. This ethnic stock is represented by the Tamil and Telugu Brahmins and the Nairs of southern India.

The Mediterraneans, the mainstream of this racial stock, entered India a little later. They were the builders of the Indus Valley Civilisation along with the Proto­Australoids, and introduced the first metal or bronze cultures in India roughly between 2,500 and 1,500 Be. They were, however, pushed out of their homeland in the Indus Valley by fresh incursions from the north-west and were driven to the Ganga plain and perhaps even further south beyond the Vindhyas. Today, they constitute the bulk of the population of the lower castes throughout northern India, and are also represented by the Namboodiri brahmins and brahmins of Allahabad and Bengal.
The so-called Oriental sub-type came much later. They have a much restricted distribution than the other two sub­types. They are represented by Punjabi 'khatris' and Rajasthani 'banias' among others. Physically they are sim­ilar to the Mediterraneans, but are characterised by a long and convex nose.