The tribal people in India have for long lived in isolation except tobe exposed for exploitation. They have participated to their benefits in the socioeconomic development of the country. To come out of their isolation, it is necessary for them to learn the language of the majority people around them and a nimber of them have done so. But this bridges the communication gaponly in one way and the whole burden of building up this bridge is carried by the minority group. It is necessary, however, for developing mutual understanding and good-will, to increase bidirectional communication between the tribal people and the majority people of the region. For this pupose, the majority people, especially those who come into contact with tribal people for various reasons such as civil administration, security, social service, trade, etc., should learn their language. The Grammar, which forms part of the package consisting of phonetic reader, bi-or-tri-lingual dictionary and teaching manual is prepared to help them in their learning of the tribal language.

The organisation of the grammar is based on grammatical functions rather than on grammatical forms. This will help the new learner to find easily how the different functions, which he already knows and wants to express, are formalised in his language. Since this Grammar is primarily meant for pedagogical purpose, theoretical discussions and justification for a particular analysis are kept to a minimum. The Grammar is divided generally into two broad categories of noun morphology and verb morphology. A description of adjectives follows noun morphology and a description of adverbs follows verb morphology. The chapter on syntax describes the order of the constituents at the surface level. There is also a Chapter on word formation, which describes the ways in which words are formed and new concept are expressed.

Though the Grammar is primarily aimed at the language learner and the teacher, it is hoped that it will also be useful to Linguists interested Typology and unoiversals.

Data for the Grammar were collected in the field primarily from one informants by elicitation through word and sentence lists. They were then cross-checked with some other informants. The description may not be exhaustive and there might be gaps. There might be possibilities for alternative analyses. Comments and suggestions passed on to us will be useful to improve our future publicatons in this series.

The priliminary version of this grammar prepared by Sri Bal Ram Prasad when he left the Institute, was revisd to fill in the gaps and edited for making the press copy by his colleagues Sir G. Devi Prasad Sastry and Dr. P. T. Abraham. The data and analysis are that of Sir G. Devi Prasad and the other two are not responsible for them. It is said that Sir G. Devi Prasad passed away prematurely before this grammar is published. This book will stand as a testimony for his love for the tribes.