KUNBI, a Mahratta race engaged in cultivation. They are also the main body of the cultivating population of Gujerat, where they are the chief owners of the soil ; and, though quiet and unpre tending, are a robust, sturdy, independent agri cultural people. Throughout the Mahratta country, Berar, Nagpur, and Kandesh, they are the princi pal agriculturists. Mr. Campbell considers them (pp. 93, 94, 95) to be quite Aryan in their features, institutions, and manners, though their institutions are less democratic than those of the Jat and Rajput, and, in the Mahratta villages, they have at their head a potail. Few of the Kunbi ever enlist as soldiers. Sivaji and his descendants and some of his chiefs• were, however, of this race, but their followers were drawn from the mawals of the Western Ghats, and latterly their armies were composed of the soldiers of fortune of every race. The Mahratta chiefs sprang from the people of Satara and Poona, but Ilolkar was of the shepherd, and the Gaekwar was of the cowherd caste ; while the Peshwa family, who put the descendants of Sivaji aside, were Konkani Brahmans. Sivaji is also said to have been of Rajput descent. • The Kunbi of the Hyderabad dominions are wholly illiterate. Indeed, till 1870, no attempt had been made to educate the people of the Hyderabad territories. Though education is making enormous strides in Berar and in British Maharashtra, there was no proper school met with in all the Editor's journeys from 1866 to 1869, amounting to about 9000 miles, and only occasion ally a few lads were to be seen, children of foreigners, learning, in a verandah, the elements of the Hindi or Mahrati. In that eastern part of the Mahratta country, the knowledge of reading or writing of any tongue was almost unknown. The Arjawna Kunbi reside in Western India. They are subdivided into a number of classes, many of whom do not eat together, or intermarry. The Kunbi, in Berar, allot themselves into eleven classes— Mali. Haldi Mali. Sagar. Vindeaa.
Full Mali. Wanjeri. Atole. Pazni.
Jerat Mali. Gantadi. Telale.
The 1881 Census Report gave different appella tions for these, and stated 5,388,487 as the number of Kunbi in India.
With the exception of the Haldi Mali and Pazni, they have Roti vya whar amongst each other, but not Beti vya whar, i.e. they eat with each other, but do not intermarry. The Berar Kunbi and Mali eat flesh, drink liquor in moderation, and their widows may all re-marry if they choose, except those of the deshinukli, who follow the high-caste custom. The Kunbi form the stock of the people of the N.W. parts of the Hyderabad territory and in the Hyderabad assigned districts. Kunbi women are stout, coarse, and robust. This term, throughout the Mahratta country and Cen tral India, is applied exclusively to the cultivating class of Hindu Sudra. It is derived from the Mahratta word Kunbawa, which means agricul , to al tillage.
' Koeri, Kurmi, and Kunbi are great agricultural classes. Many other castes, Kamma, Kapu, Vallala, Wakkali, are employed in the cultivation of the soil. Indeed, every Hindu, however humble his station, likes to have his plot of ground, which himself or his wife and children, or other relations, or in default of them, some of his friends, may cultivate. Property in land is considered by the people generally, of every rank and caste, to be the safest and most satisfactory mode of investing money, little or much, notwithstanding the heavy tax upon the soil. Koeri, Kurmi, and Kunbi are agriculturists by profession, and perhaps, least of all the castes, have suffered themselves to be diverted from their own proper occupation.
Koeri, Kurmi, and Kunbi are very laborious in their habits ; on which account, and also for their general peaceableness, they have secured the respect of all the other castes. While they are engaged in the cultivation of the land, the main distinction between them —for they are quite separate as tribes—is, that a considerable num ber of the Koeri are vegetable gardeners. They have immense gardens in the vicinity of cities and towns, which are supplied by them with various kinds of vegetables. The Koeri are the principal growers of poppy, and producers of opium, both in Benares and Behar. The 1881 census returned 1,207.951 Koeri.—Sherring's Tribes.