Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 3.djvu/394

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
KONDAIKATTI
356

funeral. The dead are believed to be born again into their former families."

Kondaikatti.— The name of a sub-division of Vellālas, 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 Vellāla. Kondalam means women's hair or a kind of dance, and it is possible that the name was returned by people of the Dēva-dāsi caste, who are rising in the social scale, and becoming absorbed in the Vellāla 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 Godāvari agency and the south of the Jeypore Zemindāri. The Telugu people call them Kōtuvāndlu. 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 Kāpu, and these people are also frequently called Kōtuvāndlu. All these names are derivatives of the root kô or kû, a