Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s2.13.1

c48.s2.13.1

In the Gangetic Doāb, Oudh and Bihār, the great peasant castes are more or less connected with each other by origin, but in so fertile a tract, well provided with large towns, the occupation of market gardening has diverted an unusually large number of subdivisions from field work. Of those who have clung to the elder branch of the profession, the Kurmī is the most widely spread, especially along the Ganges and to the south thereof. The title corresponds to that of Kunbī, used in the Dekkan and western India. The derivation is uncertain, and though the word is found in the form of Kuṭumbika in some early inscriptions, this is probably only the Sanskritised version of some older name, such as that of Kūl, a Dravidian name for a cultivating landholder, in which sense it is still used, and not only in the Dravidian country. The Kurmī is by no means a homogeneous body, and is not only much subdivided in the tracts where it is apparently of one race, but is used on the borders of the Central Belt as a sort of occupational title for those of the Kōl tribes who have been long settled as cultivators and have thereby thriven beyond their ancestors. Closely allied with the Kurmī by origin, though now entirely distinct, are the Kōërī. They rank below the former, who will drink, but not eat or intermarry with them, possibly because the Kōërī have succumbed to the lucrative attractions of special cultivation, such as that of tobacco, the poppy and even vegetables.