This work was a product of the Ethnographic Survey of India that had been established in 1901, although it differed some what from earlier publications of similar origin because it relied more on Vedic literature than on the anthropometric methods and theories of Herbert Hope Risley and his sympathizers as a mechanism for investigation of the racial origins of caste. This seminal work of ethnology, in four volumes, from the early 20th century, was compiled under the orders of the then Govt. of the Central Provinces, and was intended to give the officers in those areas sound and accurate information about the various peoples that they would govern. This work is arranged alphabetically, and gives copious notes on the sects and tribes described. This work was first published in 1916. Other such works on the tribes of the North-Western Provinces, Punjab and the NWFP, Bombay Presidency, and Southern India have also been published.
Robert Vane Russell was a British civil servant, known for his role as Superintendent of Ethnography for what was then the Central Provinces of British India, coordinating the production of publications detailling the peoples of the region. Russell served as Superintendent of Census Operations for the 1901 Census of India. From this source Russell and Hira Lal reasoned that the tribals could probably be identified as the Rakshasas (or devils) described in the Ramayan, and were therefore an entirely distinct community, the Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas were Aryan invaders, and the Sudras were the original inhabitants of South Asia, reduced by them to a subordinate role.
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