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 Kondavāndlu, Kondalu, Kōtuvāndlu, etc., terms which mean simply highlanders, and are applicable to all the hill tribes. For example, 12,164 Pānos have returned their main caste as Khond."
In a note on the Kui, Kandhī, or Khond language, Mr. G. A. Grierson writes as follows.*[1] "The Kandhs or Khonds are a Dravidian tribe in the hills of Orissa and neighbouring districts. The tribe is commonly known under the name of Khond. The Oriyās call them Kandhs, and the Telugu people Gōnds or Kōds. The name which they use themselves is Ku, and their language should accordingly be denominated Kui. The word Ku is probably related to Kōī, one of the names by which the Gōnds used to denote themselves. The Koi dialect of Gōndi is, however, quite different from Kui. The Khonds live in the midst of the Oriyā territory. Their habitat is the hills separating the districts of Ganjam and Vizagapatam in the Madras Presidency, and continuing northwards into the Orissa Tributary States, Bōd, Daspalla, and Nayagarh, and, crossing the Mahānadi, into Angul and the Khondmals. The Khond area further extends into the Central Provinces, covering the northern part Kalahandi, and the south of Patna. Kui is surrounded on all sides by Oriyā. Towards the south it extends towards the confines of the Telugu territory. The language varies locally, all over this area. The differences are not, however, great, though a man from one part of the country often experiences difficulty
- ↑ * Linguistic Survey of India, IV, 1906.
