04-01-028

28

MU FAMILY.

KHERWR.

　About eleven-twelfths of all Mus, in the wider sense of the term, speak slightly varying dialects of one language, which I have called Kherwr, i. e. the language of the Kherwrs. The Kherwrs or Kharwrs are now a cultivating and landholding tribe of Chota Nagpur and Southern Behar who are quite Aryanized. In the traditions of the Santl peple, however, the denomination Kherwr or Kharwr is used to denote the common stock from which the Santls,the Murs, the Hs, etc., have sprung. It has already been mentioned in the general introduction to the Mu Family that some scholars have therefore proposed to call the whole family Kherwarian. It has also been pointed out that the Linguistic Survey has not adopted this use of the word Kherwarian because we have no right to infer that all Mu tribes have ever been called Kherwrs and because the family has already become known under other names.

　The name Kherwr will, in this Survey, be used to denote those Mu dialects which used the word h or some similar word for 'man.' It might also be called the Eastern Mu language. The name Kol has also been applied to it, but this denomination is apt to give rise to ambiguity. In the first place, it is often used to denote all Mu dialects, in the second place it often occurs as a denomination of a group of dialects which does not include Santl, the most important dialect of the lan- guage in question. The name Kherwr has been adopted in deference to the Santl traditions and to those eminent scholars who have proposed to call the whole family Kherwarian. The name has the great advantage of being new so that it cannot easily be misunderstood. The close relation between all dialects which are comprised under the name Kherwr has long been recognized, but, so far as I am aware, they are now for the first time classed together as one distinct form of Mu language.

　The Kherwr language is spoken by more than 2 1/2 million of people from Bhagalpur and the Sonthal Parganas in the north to the Orissa Tributary States in the south, and from Morbhanj in the east to Sambalpur in the west. The details will be found below under the various dialects. According to local estimates made for the purposes of this Survey and the more accurate figures returned at the last Census, the number of speakers may be put down, respectively, as follows:-

Name of dialect.	Estimated number of speakers.	Census of 1901.
Santl...	1,614,822	1,795,113
Mur...	406,524	460,744
Bhumij...	79,078	111,304
Brh...	1,234	526
K...	8,949	23,873
H...	383,126	371,860
Tr...	3,727	3,880
Asur...	19,641	4,894
Korw...	20,227	16,442
TOTAL.	2,537,328	2,788,636