From this period large numbers of Maltrattas settled in these districts, the Gonds became more restricted to the hills, and they do not now form any considerable part of the popula tion of the plain or chatnpaign country. They predominate from Sirguja westward along the line of the Satpura Hills, through all the hilly country of the districts of 31andla, Jubbulpur, Seoni, Chandwara, Baitul, and Hoshungabad, and in some degree to the neighbourhood of Asirgarh. The Gond of Berar is a hill race, occupying the Mailghat and the southern skirts along with the Andh, the Kolamb, and Kurku. All these have a physical resemblance, but each of thern speaks a different tongue,and in their features they are quite distinct from the people of the i villages. There are 8000 of them in the Amraoti district. In the Central India Provinces the chief Gond tribes are :—Bhatra Gond, 3fari Gond, in Chanda ; Mariah or Gottawar, Upper Godavery ; Khutolwar, in Chanda ; Durweh, of Chanda; Aguriah, of Mandla ; Hulba, of Upper Godavery. Their numbers have been variously estimated up to two millions, partly under feudatory states, as Bastar, Hyderabad, etc., and partly under the British Government, in the Central Provinces.
The Gonds divide themselves into twelve and a half castes, viz. Raj Gond, Raghuwal, Dadare, Katulya, Padal, Dholi, Ojhyal, Thotyal, Koila bhutal, Koikopal, Kolain, 3fadyal, and an inferior sort of Padal as the half caste. The census of 1881 names nine of them—Raj Gond, Pardhan, Kolam, Koilabhute, Darwe, Thakur, Bucheria, Boye, and Thoti. The first four, adds Mr. Hislop, with the addition, according to some, of the Kolam, are comprehended under the name of Koitor,—the Gond par excellence. This term, in its radical form Koi, is the name given also to the 3feriah sacrificing tribes of Orissa, and to the wild tribes skirting the left bank of the Godavery from Rajamundry to near the mouth of the Indrawati. The Persian word Koh, a hill, approaches this more closely than even the Telugu Konda. The Koitor, as a rule, resent with no small vehemence the imputation of belonging to any portion of the Hindu community. The first three classes generally devote themselves to agri culture ; the fourth includes those who have I began to conform to the IIindu religion and ape Hindu manners. The Padal, Pathadi, Pardhan, or Desai, called Raj Pardhan to distinguish them from the Mahrati-speaking half-caste,—who play on wind instruments of brass, and spin cotton thread,—are the religious counsellors or bhats of the upper classes. The Dholi are musicians ; and a subdivision of them in jungly districts aro employed as goatherds. The Ojhyal axe wandering
bards and fowlers. The Thotyal (i.e. maimed) or Pendabarya, minstrels of God,' are also called Matyal, because their songs are chiefly in honour of Meta, the dreaded goddess of smallpox. They make baskets also. The Koilabhutal are the third. wandering caste, and their women are dancing girls. They follow their profession chiefly among the Hindus, it being reckoned disreputable by the people of their own race. The Koikopal, i.e. Gondi Gopal, are a settled class devoted to cow keeping. The Madya, called Jhodia in Baster, are savages on the Beila Dila Hills, and in the remoter parts of Chanda. The only clothing the women weax is a bunch of leafy twigs fastened with a string round their waists, to cover them before and behind. In this they resemble the Juangar to the south of the Kol country, the Chenchi near the Pulicat Lake and to the north of Ellore, and till about A.D. 1830 a sitnilar custom existed among the Holier near Mangalore. The Kolam extend along the Nandi Konda or Pindi Hills, on the south of the Wardha river, and along the table-land stretching east and north of Manik ga.dh, and thence south to Danttanpalli, running parallel to the right bank of the Pranhita. They do not intermarry with the common Gond, but the one attend the nuptials of the other, and eat from their hands. COnnected with the Gonds, though not included in the preceding classes, are the Madiya between Chindwara and the Mahadeva Hills, who have conformed to the Hindus in their language and some religious observances ; the IIalwa, pretty numerous in Baster, Bhandara, and Raipur, who covet the distinction of wearing a sacred thread,—a privilege, till recently, sold to those in Baster by the raja ; the Gaiti Gonds in Bastar, who call themselves Koitor ; the Moria Gonds, who are the principal agriculturists in Baster ; and the Naikude Gonds, inhabiting the jungles on the banks of the Pain-Ganga, and especially the tracts between Digaras and Umar khed, and found about Aparawa-pet, and as far as Nirmul, who have adopted the Hindu dress, and will not eat beef ; but they live by the chase, or cut wood and grass, and have been a terror to their neighbourhood by their depredations.
Quite distinct in language at least from the Gond tribes, are the Kur or Muasi and the Korku to the N. W. and W. of the Mahadeva Hills. Of the latter of these, Mr. Elliot gave interesting details in the second number of the Journal of the Antiquarian Society of the Central Provinces. They belong to the Kol or Munda family.