A History of the Mahrattas v1.c7.68

v1.c7.68

Maratha Country). In Sanskrit inscriptions it appears as Kutumbika (householder) and in the Rāsmāla (Forbes) as Kutumbiks and Koutombiks. The name is variously derived from Kutumba, a family, or from a Dravidian root kul, a husbandman or labourer. Fryer (1675) spoke of the caste as ‘Columbeens who manure the soil.’ The caste shows traces of an ancient totemistic organization, and in the Central Provinces, if not elsewhere, has in the past been largely recruited from other castes, who have adopted the hereditary Kunbī calling of agriculture. (B.G., vol. xxiv, p. 70; x. 121; xviii. 1, 285, 307; Russell, T. and C.C.P., vol. iv, pp. 16 ff.)]