The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India - Volume IV | Page 8

story became current that the beneficent goddess fought and slew the buffalo-demon which injured the crops, for the benefit of her worshippers, and the fast was observed and the buffalo sacrificed in commemoration of this event. It is possible that the sacrifice of the buffalo may have been a non-Aryan rite, as the Mundas still offer a buffalo to Deswali, their forest god, in the sacred grove; and the Korwas of Sarguja nave periodical sacrifices to Kali in which many buffaloes are slaughtered. In the pictures of her fight with Bhainsasur, Devi is shown as riding on a tiger, and the uneducated might imagine the struggle to have resembled that between a tiger and a buffalo. As the destroyer of buffaloes and deer which graze on the crops the tiger may even be considered the cultivator's friend. But in the rural tracts Bhainsasur himself is still venerated in the guise of a corn-deity, and pig are perhaps offered to him as the animals which nowadays do most harm to the crops.

Kunbi
[This article is based on the information collected for the District Gazetteers of the Central Provinces, manuscript notes furnished by Mr. A.K. Smith, C.S., and from papers by Pandit Pyare Lal Misra and Munshi Kanhya Lal. The Kunbis are treated in the Poona and Khandesh volumes of the Bombay Gazetteer. The caste has been taken as typical of the Marathi-speaking Districts, and a fairly full description of the marriage and other ceremonies has therefore been given, some information on houses, dress and food being also reproduced from the Wardha and Yeotmal District Gazetteers.]

List of Paragraphs
1. Distribution of the caste and origin of name. 2. Settlement in the Central Provinces. 3. Sub castes. 4. The cultivating status. 5. Exogamous septs. 6. Restrictions on marriage of relatives. 7. Betrothal and marriage. 8. Polygamy and divorce. 9. Widow-marriage. 10. Customs at birth. 11. Sixth- and twelfth-day ceremonies. 12. Devices for procuring children. 13. Love charms. 14. Disposal of the dead. 15. Mourning. 16. Religion. 17. The Pola festival. 18. Muhammadan tendencies of Berar Kunbis. 19. Villages and houses. 20. Furniture. 21. Food. 22. Clothes and ornaments. 23. The Kunbi as cultivator. 24. Social and moral characteristics.

1. Distribution of the caste and origin of name
Kunbi--The great agricultural caste of the Maratha country. In the Central Provinces and Berar the Kunbis numbered nearly 1,400,000 persons in 1911; they belong to the Nagpur, Chanda, Bhandara, Wardha, Nimar and Betul Districts of the Central Provinces. In Berar their strength was 800,000, or nearly a third of the total population. Here they form the principal cultivating class over the whole area except in the jungles of the north and south, but muster most strongly in the Buldana District to the west, where in some taluks nearly half the population belongs to the Kunbi caste. In the combined Province they are the most numerous caste except the Gonds. The name has various forms in Bombay, being Kunbi or Kulambi in the Deccan, Kulwadi in the south Konkan, Kanbi in Gujarat, and Kulbi in Belgaum. In Sanskrit inscriptions it is given as Kutumbika (householder), and hence it has been derived from kutumba, a family. A chronicle of the eleventh century quoted by Forbes speaks of the Kutumbiks or cultivators of the grams, or small villages. [13] Another writer describing the early Rajput dynasties says: [14] "The villagers were Koutombiks (householders) or husbandmen (Karshuks); the village headmen were Putkeels (patels)." Another suggested derivation is from a Dravidian root kul a husbandman or labourer; while that favoured by the caste and their neighbours is from kun, a root, or kan grain, and bi, seed; but this is too ingenious to be probable.

2. Settlement in the Central Provinces
It is stated that the Kunbis entered Khandesh from Gujarat in the eleventh century, being forced to leave Gujarat by the encroachments of Rajput tribes, driven south before the early Muhammadan invaders of northern India. [15] From Khandesh they probably spread into Berar and the adjoining Nagpur and Wardha Districts. It seems probable that their first settlement in Nagpur and Wardha took place not later than the fourteenth century, because during the subsequent period of Gond rule we find the offices of Deshmukh and Deshpandia in existence in this area. The Deshmukh was the manager or headman of a circle of villages and was responsible for apportioning and collecting the land revenue, while the Deshpandia was a head patwari or accountant. The Deshmukhs were usually the leading Kunbis, and the titles are still borne by many families in Wardha and Nagpur. These offices [16] belong to the Maratha country, and it seems necessary to suppose that their introduction into Wardha and Berar dates from a period at least as early as the fourteenth century, when these territories were included in the dominions of the Bahmani kings