Gonds , an aboriginal tribe inhabiting the highlands of the Central Provinces of India, whence that region derives the name of Gond-wana or Gundwana. The earliest authentic records represent them as already affected by intermarriage and association with the Hindoos, and within the historic period their original characteristics have been still further modified by the same influences. The true Gonds, however, appear to be allied to the Dravidian races of southern India. They are a comparatively rude people, sturdy, restless, hardy, and fearless. The skin of the Gond is brown, and his hair is straight and black. He seldom exceeds 5 ft. 2 in. in height. The entire number of Gonds now dwelling in the hill tracts of central India is estimated at over 800,000. Their condition varies greatly in difierent localities. Near the Hindoo boundaries large numbers of them are engaged as agricultural laborers; the inhabitants of the interior are more secluded, wild, and independent. The Raj Gonds, in the eastern part of Gondwana, have sprung from the intermixture of the aborigines and Rajpoots. The Gonds possess no written language; they are generally somewhat familiar with Hindostanee, but usually converse among themselves in their own tongue. Their religion is a degraded sort of pantheism.

While polygamy is not prohibited, it is practically of rare occurrence, as a wife cannot be obtained without a payment, either in money or services, to her family. The women engage in every sort of labor except that of the chase, in which the men are extremely expert. The chief hunters of the villages now use matchlocks in place of the bow and arrow, and the men very generally carry little axes, which they throw with such skill and precision as to kill birds and. animals at a considerable distance. These axes are in fact the principal agricultural implement of the Gonds, as their simple system of cultivation consists merely in felling timber, burning it, and planting grain in the ashes. The advance of the Gonds in civilization appears to be proportional to the admixture of the Hindoo element with the aboriginal race. Where this is small, as in the interior of the highlands, the scanty means of the people for subsistence, and the constant exposure to malaria and disease, operate most powerfully against any increase of prosperity.

Their general condition as a people, however, seems to be gradually improving under British rule.