. The tribes and castes of the Central Provinces of India . 9. Widow-marriage. 22. 10. Customs at birth. 23. 11. Sixth- a7id twelfth-day cere- 24. monies. Devices for procuring children. Love charms. Disposal of the dead. Mourning. Religion. The Pola festival. Muham^nadan teiidcncies ofBerar Kujtbis. Villages a?id houses. Furniture. Food. Clothes aftd ornaments. The Kunbi as cultivator. Social and inoral charac-teristics. I. Distri-bution ofthe casteand originof name. KunM.—The great agricultural caste of the Marathacountry. In the Central Provinces and Berar the Kunbisnumbered nearly 1,400,00
. The tribes and castes of the Central Provinces of India . 9. Widow-marriage. 22. 10. Customs at birth. 23. 11. Sixth- a7id twelfth-day cere- 24. monies. Devices for procuring children. Love charms. Disposal of the dead. Mourning. Religion. The Pola festival. Muham^nadan teiidcncies ofBerar Kujtbis. Villages a?id houses. Furniture. Food. Clothes aftd ornaments. The Kunbi as cultivator. Social and inoral charac-teristics. I. Distri-bution ofthe casteand originof name. KunM.—The great agricultural caste of the Marathacountry. In the Central Provinces and Berar the Kunbisnumbered nearly 1,400,000 persons in 1911 ; they belongto the Nagpur, Chanda, Bhandara, Wardha, Nimar andBetul Districts of the Central Provinces. In Berar theirstrength was 800,000, or nearly a third of the total popula-tion. Here they form the principal cultivating class overthe whole area except in the jungles of the north and south,but muster most strongly in the Buldana District to thewest, where in some taluks nearly half the population 16 ^^ ■■*di tB Tiji ■ *■. PT. II SETTLEMENT IN THE CENTRAL PROVINCES 17 belongs to the Kunbi caste. In the combined Provincethey are the most numerous caste except the Gonds. Thename has various forms in Hombay, beinc; Kunbi or Kulambiin the Dcccan, Kulwadi in the south Konkan, Kanbi inGujarat, and Kulbi in l^elgaum. In Sanskrit inscriptionsit is given as Kutumbika (householder), and hence it hasbeen derived from kutmnba^ a family. A chronicle of theeleventh century quoted by Forbes speaks of the Kutumbiksor cultivators of the grams or small villages.^ Anotherwriter describing the early Rajput dynasties says : Thevillagers were Koutombiks (householders) or husbandmen(Karshuks) ; the village headmen were Putkeels (patels).Another suggested derivation is from a Dravidian root kiil^a husbandman or labourer ; while that favoured by thecaste and their neighbours is from kun, a root, or kan^ grain,and bif seed ; but this is too ingenious to be probable. It is
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