KOK-TASH, a coronation stone in Samarcand, on which Timur and each succeeding amir has sat.
KOL, as popularly used, is a term which in cludes not only Ho and Mundah tribes, but also the Dravidian Orson, while its scientific use embraces the three cognate Kolarian tribes of Mundah, Ho or Larka Kol, and Bhumij.
Kol is a term applied to the aborigines of the hill country of Chutia Nagpur, Mirzapur, and Rewah. Europeans apply the term to the Dravidian Orson, as well as to the others, but perhaps erroneously, and most of the tribes have other distinctive names. In the south of the Chutia Nagpur country, about Singbhum, it is applied to the Larks Kol. The aborigines of Chutia Nagpur are in two tribes, Mnndah and Orson. These are generally separate, but are sometimes found occupying the same villages, cultivating the same fields, but their festivals and amusements are different, and they are of entirely distinct origin, and cannot inter marry without loss of caste. Tho Mundah were the prior occupants. The Kol, Larks Kol, and time wilder Larka Kol of the hills to the west of the Singbhum district, speak nearly the same language as the Ho, Santal, Bimini, and Mundah. The Kol, the Kur of Ellichpur, the Korewa of Sirguja and Jusbpur, the Mundah and Klieria of Chutia Nagpur, the Ho of Singblium, the Illimuij of 31anbliuin and Dhulblium, and the Santal of Manbhum Singblium, Cuttack tributary mahals, Hazaribagh, and the Santal parganas, are kindred peoples numbering several million. Amongst the Kol, man and wife eat' together, as is the custom with some Christian and Muhammadan races. The Kol and the Mundah tribes, and all those cognate to the Mundah, are passionately fond of dancing, which they commence in very early life, and regard as an accomplishment. They also sing well and have musical voices and a great variety of simple melodies. Their dancing assumes a national character at their great periodical seasonal festivals and fairs, called Jatra, at which the young men treat their partners with fairings. The Kol have a belief in, and greatly dread, witches, and have killed many persons whom they believed to be so. Chota Nagpur, properly Chutia Nag pur, is the country on the eastern part of the extensive plateau of Central India, on which the Koel, the Sabunreka, the Damuda, and other rivers have their sources. It extends into Sir guja, and forms what is called the Upar-ghat or highland of Jusbpur, and it is connected by a continuous chain of hills with the Vindhya and Kymor ranges, from which flow affluents of the Ganges, and with the highlands of Amarkantak, on which are the sources of the Nerbadda. The plateau is, on the average, about 3000 feet above the level of the sea, with an area of about 7000 square miles. It is on all sides difficult of access, is a well-wooded, undulating country, diversified by ranges of hills, and it has a genial climate. The population in 1866 was estimated at about a million, and is formed of a number of non-Aryan tribes who had fallen back to that refuge from the plains, more than half of them, however, being the race known to Europeans as Kol. The other races in Chutia Nagpur and its adjoining tracts are, the Larka Kol, Ho, Bhumi, Mundah, and Santa].
Ghasi are numerous wherever there are Kol. They are musicians, and amongst the Kol take the place of the Chandal.
The Larka Kol, as they are termed, inhabit those extensive tracts which go .under the name of the Kolehan. Part of these wilds is situated in the Singbhum district, and the inhabitants pay a nominal obedience to the maharaja of that pro vince; but the greater proportion of this popula tion is more under the influence of the raja of Mokurbunj, than of any of the other powerful chiefs in that part of the country. But even his orders are obeyed only where they are supposed to tend to the advantage of the Kol themselves. Upon the whole, it may be said of this singular people, that, living in a primeval and patriarchal manner under their Mundah and Manki, they have managed to preserve a sort of savage independence, making themselves dreaded and feared by their more powerful and civilised neighbours. The Kolehan with its wilds and jungles is divided into different pir, as they are termed, or parganas. These pir are, generally speaking, not of any great extent, two or three moderate marches carry a traveller through each of the'. There can be little doubt, and such is the tradi1 'on among the people themselves, that the Lar - Kol came originally from Chutia Nagpur, and are eseendants of the old Mundah or Mundari of that district.
They emigrated, finding the romantic .hills and valleys of Chutia Nagpur to confined for their increasing numbers. The same cast of counte nance prevails in the two races, though, perhaps, tinged with a wilder and more fierce expression in the Larka Kol. The Oraon, who inhabit a great part of Chutia Nagpur, regard the Kol as a tribe inferior to themselves, and do not intermarry with them. The villages in the Kolehan are ruled by Mundah and Manki, as in Chutia Nagpur. The former, the Mundah, is the proprietor of one village; while the latter holds six, eight, or twelve. These village potentates used frequently to wage fierce war with one another, and bitter and long-existing feuds have often prevailed amongst them. There is this peculiarity in the Kol character, however, that serious and bloody as may be the domestic quarrels, no sooner are they threatened with hostilities from without, than all their animosities are laid aside and forgotten for a time. The villages are generally built on some elevated spot surrounded by trees, and, at some little distance from the principal entrance to the villages, the Kol standard or ensign, a pair of buffalo horns, is suspended in a conspicuous situation. The dress of both sexes is alike, a strip of cloth brought round the loins and passed between the thighs forming their only covering ; the women wear a profusion of coloured beads suspended from their necks, and have their ears pierced with a number of small brass rings. Their diet is of a very promiscu ous nature, everything almost that can be con sidered eatable being relished by them, and much of what we consider carrion is eagerly sought for. In this respect they do not differ from the Kol of Chutia Nagpur. They are greatly addicted to drunkenness. The religion of the Larka Kol is nothing but a superstition of the grossest kind. The great divinity is the sun (suruj), next to the sun ranks the moon (chandu), and then the stars, which they believe to be the children of the latter. They uniformly, upon solemn and great occasions, invoke the sun, and by him many of these lawless men at times swore allegiance to the late E.I. Company. Another form of oath used by them is that of swearing upon a small quantity of rice, a tiger's skin and claws, and the earth of the white ants' nests ; besides the sun and moon, other inferior divinities are supposed to exist, to whom the Kol offer up sacrifices of various kinds. These spirits are supposed to inhabit the trees and topes in and around the village. The belief the Kol entertain of the power and influence of the Bhonga must be considerable, as they will on no account allow those trees to be denuded of their branches, and still less cut down. It is the universal custom in the various Kol villages, that when a woman is seized with the pains of labour, she is immediately removed to a lonely hut, the door is shut upon her, offerings of various kinds are suspended near it to propitiate the Bhonga, and no one ventures near till all is over. The women, it may be observed, are not secluded or shut up. When a Kol youth has fixed his affection on a lass, generally' the inhabitant of some neighbouring village, she is waylaid and carried off to his house by himself and his friends. So soon as information of this reaches the parents of the girl, they proceed to the village of the ravisher, not, however, in general, with any hostile purpose. Interviews take place between the friends on either side, and at length matters are brought to a final settlement ; the new husband paying to the Of his spouse a certain number of cows, goats, or buffaloes, accord ing to his means, or the beauty and comeliness of his bride. After this a scene of feasting and intoxication generally follows, in which women and children, as well as men, participate. The Kol burn their dead, carefully collecting the bones and ashes, and bury them with offerings of rice, in or near their villages, placing perpendicular or horizontal slabs of stone over each particular grave. Those grave-stones form a remarkable object, and strike the eye of every stranger on approaching a Kol village. The only weapons used by the Kol, whether in war or hunting, are the bow and arrow, and the tulwar or axe.