ABSTRACT
Bhil is the ethnic name for a group of horticulturalists and pastoralists who inhabit the Satpuda and Vindhya mountains in central western India. Its meaning—bow and arrow in Dravidian languages—indicates that they were hunter-gatherers who migrated from south India. Archaeological evidence documents some of the earliest Palaeolithic settlements in India in this area, and the first written evidence of Bhil settlements is from early medieval times, about a.d.1200. Their own origin myths identify the Bhil as the original settlers, or adivasis, of this region.
