The theory goes that the Musahars were originally a Munda-speaking hunter-gatherer group living on the Chota Nagpur Plateau. Around 1650-1700, they migrated off the plateau to the eastern Gangetic Plain. They became agricultural labourers to landlords who spoke Indo-Aryan languages, and in order to communicate with them and gain social status, they learnt their landlords' languages. The stigma of their tribal roots resulted in their placement at the lowest end of the caste hierarchy. Some Musahars have claimed that they once had their own language but it was lost when they migrated. This process has been observed in another tribal population, the Baiga, who also once spoke a Munda language but shifted to an Indo-European language in the past. However, unlike the Musahar, the Baiga remained isolated from Brahminical society at large and so were seen as a tribe rather than a caste.