The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c6.11.5

v1.c6.11.5

Two diametrically opposite series of changes of one word cannot simultaneously go on in one language, and it is not at all likely that the result of one of them should be adopted to imply a generic idea, and that of the other the differentia. It seems probable, therefore, that the *ka* series of race names are independent of the *ho* series ; or, what is more probable, the Brāhmaṇic races who first came in contact with the Coles in Upper and Central India, used it as a generic term, [ 4 ] and when they met the *Oḍs* in Orissa, named them as a separate tribe of the Coles—“the Oḍ Coles”. This is a question, however, which does not call for any lengthened discussion in this place. It is enough for our purpose here that *Oḍ* is generally supposed to be a tribal designation, and what is of greater importance, that this supposition is not a mere conjecture, but is fully borne out by tangible living evidence. In many parts of Orissa and particularly in the Pargannah of Khurdā there exists to this day a race of agriculturists or *cāṣās* who profess to be Hindus, and are in no way different in their physical characteristics from the general population, but who are shunned by all their neighbours as degraded beings, and obliged to live by themselves in separate communities, having their own separate Brāhmaṇ priests, and peculiar customs, and social observances.