KUR. A Hindu practice for extorting a debt was called erecting a kur, meaning a circular pile of wood, which was prepared ready for con flagration. Upon this, sometimes a cow, and sometimes an old woman, was placed by the con structors of the pile, and the whole was consumed together. Tho object of this practice was ,to extort payment of a debt, or to intimidate the officers;of Government or others from importu nate demands, as the effect of the sacrifice was supposed to involve in great sin the person whose conduct forced the constructor of the kur to this expedient.
In January 1880, the thakur of Sandwar had sent his vakeel to the village of Upni. near Bikanir, to collect the village revenues. The Siddhs of Upni refused to pay the usual malba, a small tax levied to defray village expenses. They got together other Siddhs from the neighbouring villages to the number of 150; and the whole body began to sit dharna,' and threatened to bury themselves alive unless they were exempted from paying the tax. The thakur consulted with the tahsildar of Gujangarh, who tried to persuade the men to go to Bikanir and prefer any com plaint there which they had to make. • The Siddhs refused, and as the thakur still declined to give in to their demand, they actually buried alive two of their number,—an old man of 75. and an old woman of 65. The raj officials and the lumberdars of the village tried to prevent the murder ; but the Siddhs drew their swords, and carried out their purpose.—Mrs. Ellwood; Cole. Myth. hind. p. 148.
KUR. Him A remission in rent in favour of high-caste cultivators, to enable them to employ a ploughman.
KUR or Kar, a term in use amongst the 3Iahratta and Nair races. Many of the principal Mahratta families derive their name from a com pound formed from that of the village where they were born, and the substantive Kur, which signifies an inhabitant, as Nimbal-Knr, Kur, etc. Kur, in Maleali, means a class, a party.
The people of Malabar, from the rajas and Brahmans to the lowest races, are divided into classes,—the Chevara-Kur, the fighting or ruling class ; and the Panniyur-Kur, the civil and labour ing class. Their usages differ materially, and the distinctions are carefully preserved.-111aleolm's Central India, i. p. 142 ; 1Vilson's Glossary.
KUR, Kurku, or Muasi, are a tribe of Kolarian race, who occupy Nimar, the Gawilgarh Hills of Berar, Kalibhit, the western Satpura, northwards towards Indore, and to the N.W. and W. of the Mahadeva Hills. They are not Gond, but a branch of the Kol family. The Kurku and Gond keep themselves separate, and they each have a separate language. There are 28,709 of Kurku in Berar. There are about 4000 of them in Woon and Ainraoti. Along with the Andh, Gond, and Kolamb, they occupy the Mailghat and the southern skirts of its hills. They resemble each other in appearance, though they each speak a different tongue, and in their features they differ from the villagers. The Kurku have their head quarters on and around the Nerbadda hills, and extend westward through Baitul and Hoshang abad as far as Berhampiir ,and Asirgarh. The Gond eat cow's flesh at most of their festivals, whilst the Kurku hold such a practice an abomina tion. Some of the Kurku hold parwanabs from the 3loghul emperors, in which they are styled Rajputs. Their common word for mun is Kurako, which is simply the plural of Kur or Kura (in Munda, a boy), and we have thus a term equally near the Koraku and Korwa of Sirguja, and the Kur of Gawilgarh. The close relationship of the