Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 3 of 7Thurston, Edgar
History
Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 3 of 7
Thurston, Edgar
Caste -- India, South; Ethnology -- India, South; India, South -- Social life and customs; Tribes -- India, South
Konda Dora.--The Konda Doras are a caste of hill cultivators, found
chiefly in Vizagapatam. Concerning them Surgeon-Major W. R. Cornish
writes as follows. [152] "Contrasting strangely with the energetic,
patriarchal, and land-reverencing Parja (Poroja), are the neighbouring
indigenous tribes found along the slopes of the eastern ghauts. They
are known as Konda Doras, Konda Kapus, and Ojas. From what has been
ascertained of their languages, it seems certain that, divested of
the differences which have been engrafted upon them by the fact of
the one being influenced by Uriya and the other by Telugu, they are
substantially of the same origin as the Parja language and the Khond
language. But the people themselves seem to have entirely lost all
those rights to the soil, which are now characteristic of the more
northern tribes. They are completely at the mercy of late immigrants,
so much so that, though they call themselves Konda Doras, they are
called by the Bhaktas, their immediate superiors, Konda Kapus. If
they are found living in a village with no Telugu superior, they are
known as Doras. If, on the other hand, such a man is at the head of
the village affairs, they are to him as adscripti glebæ, and are
denominated Kapus or ryots (cultivators). It is apparent that the
comparatively degraded position that this particular soil-folk holds is
due to the influence of the Telugu colonists; and the reason why they
have been subjected to a greater extent than the cognate tribes further
inland is possibly that the Telugu colonization is of more ancient date
than the Uriya colonization. It may further be surmised that, from the
comparative proximity of the Telugu districts, the occupation of the
crests of these ghats partook rather of the character of a conquest
than that of mere settlings in the land. But, however it came about,
the result is most disastrous. Some parts of Pachipenta, Hill Madugulu,
and Kondakamberu, which have been occupied by Telugu-speaking folk,
are far inferior in agricultural prosperity to the inland parts,
where the Uriyas have assumed the lead in the direction of affairs."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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