The Gonds refer to themselves as ‘koitor’ and not
by the term ‘Gond’. About the derivation of
the word Gond, Athelstane Baines(1912: 119) says that
“title Gond, a title which like that of Kol, has
been extended to a number of almost distinct communities.
Some authorities trace the name to Kond8a- the Telugu
word for hill as in the case of Kond or Kand tribe of
Central India”. They trace their origin and ancestry
to the Pandava Prince and his famous tribal spouse, Hidamba
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The Gonds on the whole may be divided into
two major ethnic groups: (1) The Raj Gonds, i.e., the
Gonds of the districts Mandla , Chindwara, Seoni, Balaghat,
Betul of Madhya Pradesh and Adilabad district in Andhra
Pradesh and in Chanda and Yeotmal districts of Maharashtra
and (2) The Bastar Gonds consisting of Muria, Maria, Dorla
and Koya tribes living in and around Bastar district.
The Koyas also inhabit the hills in the North of the Godavari
district in Andhra Pradesh and also found in the Malkangiri
taluk in Koraput district of Orissa.
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What is the distinction between the Raj
Gonds and the other section of the Gond people ?
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Various theories were advanced to explain
that distinction. Lucie-Smith (1969 : 46) suggested that
“the epithet Raj was originally applied to royal
and noble Gond families from which the distinction spread
to their followers and the governing class generally;
or it may describe the leading Gond tribe which in ancient
days conquerred the land from other aboriginal clans”.
Captain Forsyth believed that Raj Gonds are in many cases
the descendants of alliances, between Rajput adventurers
and Gonds (quoted in Haimendorf, 1979:9). Looking from
the social angle Grigson(1938: 36) suggested that “names,
such as Raj Gond arose from the tendency, familiar throughout
in India, of local groups of primitive races which are
gradually being Hinduized to regard themselves and to
be accepted by their Hindu neighbours as separate Hindu
castes under new names”
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| Bastar Gonds |
| Bastar, once a feudatory
state in the Central Provinces of India, now forms a district
in the State of Madhya Pradesh. In area it is the biggest
of all the districs in India. Its ethnic composition is
mainly tribal; about 75 per cent of the population is
formed by various tribal groups like Bhatras, Parjas,
Halbas, Murias, Marias, Dorlas and Koyas. |
| Bhatras:
In Bastar except for one or two villages at the south-east
of the Kondagaon tahsil, the Bhatras are confined to the
north-east corner of the district headquaters Jagdalpur,
along the Jeypore border, across which they overflow in
large numbers into Jeypore and beyond Kalahandi of Orissa.
Bhatri, their langusge, seems only halbi influenced by
its proximity to the Oriya speaking tracts. But according
to Grierson they speak a corrupt Oriya dialect. |
| Parjas:
In Bastar Parjas refer themselves as Dhurwa and they resent
the designation Parja. The majority of them live in the
south-east of the Jagdalpur tahsil north and south of
the Kanker forest reserve. A group of them are found around
Darba in Sukma tahsil. Their language is described by
Grierson as a local and very currupt variation of Gondi
considerably mixed with Hindi forms. Yet their speech
is very unintelligible to Bison-horn Maria and Muria neighbours.
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