History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c8.10

v1.c8.10

On its Western frontier Kalinga and Orissa are protected by range after range of hills, the offshoots of the great Eastern Ghats, which form a very effective bulwark on that side; but, at the same time, the secluded valleys between these ranges have sheltered the primitive inhabitants of India from time immemorial. Here are to be found the Kolian tribes speaking languages of the Austric race, who clung pertinaciously to their own languages, manners and customs for centuries and who have given up infanticide and human sacrifice long after the British conquest. These aboriginal tribes have been seldom conquered by earlier kings of the country, who were often pleased to accept a nominal submission from their chiefs. To the north of Mayurbhanja lies Dhalbhum and Singbhum, tracts forming the home-land of the Kolian people. The North-western portion of the Mayurbhanja State is almost entirely inhabited by aboriginals. In modern times the states of Gangpur, Bonai, Bamra, Rairakhol, Sonpur, Patna and Karond with a portion of the British district of Sambalpur form a line along which the aboriginals live with a sprinkling of North Indian or Oriya population, and in this tract a sort of hybrid Oriya is spoken, showing that the original inhabitants of the country were civilized by the people of Orissa and Kalinga. This part of the highlands of Orissa was called Khinjali in ancient times and was divided into two parts by the river Mahānadī. The chiefs of this area now claim Rajput descent, but the discrepancies in the accounts preserved or published by them prove that in the majority of cases they are of hybrid descent or mere pretenders to Rajput descent. In mediaeval ages the country to the west of Khiñjali was called Mahākośala or Dakṣiṇa-Kośala and was subject to the Somavaṁśīs and the Haihayas of Tripurī and Ratnapura. The present characteristics of the population and the dialects spoken point to a aboriginal or mixed descent.