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
Kondaikatti.--The name of a sub-division of Vellalas, meaning those
who tie the whole mass of hair of the head (kondai) in a knot on the
top of the head, as opposed to the kudumi or knot at the back of the
partially shaved head.
Kondaita.--A sub-division of Doluva.
Kondaiyamkottai.--A sub-division of Maravan.
Kondalar.--Recorded, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, as a sub-caste
of Vellala. Kondalam means women's hair or a kind of dance, and it
is possible that the name was returned by people of the Deva-dasi
caste, who are rising in the social scale, and becoming absorbed in
the Vellala caste. Kondali, of doubtful meaning, has been returned
by cultivators and agricultural labourers in North Arcot.
Kondh.--In the Administration Report of the Ganjam Agency, 1902-3,
Mr. C. B. Cotterell writes that Kondh is an exact transliteration
from the vernacular, and he knows of no reason, either sentimental
or etymological, for keeping such spelling as Khond.
It is noted, in the Madras Census Report, 1891, that "the Khonds
inhabit the hill tracts of Ganjam and parts of Vizagapatam, and are
found also in Bengal and the Central Provinces. They call themselves
Kui, a name identical with the Koi or Koya of the Godavari agency
and the south of the Jeypore Zemindari. The Telugu people call them
Kotuvandlu. The origin of the name Khond is doubtful, but Macpherson
is, I think, right in deriving it from Telugu Konda, a hill. There is a
tribe in Vizagapatam called Konda Dora or Konda Kapu, and these people
are also frequently called Kotuvandlu. All these names are derivatives
of the root kô or kû, a mountain. The number of sub-divisions returned
is 58. The list includes many names of other castes, a fact which
must be in part ascribed to the impossibility of distinguishing the
true Khonds from persons returned as Kondavandlu, Kondalu, Kotuvandlu,
etc., terms which mean simply highlanders, and are applicable to all
the hill tribes. For example, 12,164 Panos have returned their main
caste as Khond."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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