208 



MANUAL OF THE NILAGIRI DISTKICT. 



i 



CHAP. IX, 

 PART III. 



Ethnology. 



Origin and 

 history. 



PART III. 



KURUMBAS. 



Origin. — Physical characteristics. — Dress. — Census. — Divisions. — Mode of life. — 

 Dwellings.— Livelihood.— Religion.— Rites — Birth.— Marriage.— Death.— Tradi- 

 tions. 



The Kiirumbas occupy the slopes of the Hills and are undoubt- 

 edly allied to, or derived from, the same stock as the tribes 

 scattered about the districts of Malabar, Mysore, and Coimbatore, 

 of whom several are mentioned by Buchanan. In the low country 

 they are called Kiirubas or Cilrubaru, and are divided into 

 numerous families, such as the Ane or Elephant, Naya or Dog-, 

 Male or Hill Kurumbas. According to Buchanan, there are tw^ ^ 

 great divisions, Handi and Kumbali Kurumbas. He speaks of the 

 Kad Kurumbas, an exceedingly poor tribe living south of the 

 Kaveri. As described by him they are not unlike their brethren 

 of the Hills ; he says " they build miserable low huts, have few 

 rags for a covering, and the hair of both sexes stands out like a 

 mop and swarms with vermin. Their persons and features are 

 weak and unseemly, and their complexion is very dark." The word 

 Kurumba means a shepherd.^ It seems probable that all the 

 tribes still extant are remnants of a once powerful people composed 

 probably of numerous small tribes possessing considerable terri- 

 tory in Canara,^ Western Mysore and in the great ^ Carnatic 

 Plain and sprung from a race of nomadic shepherds, one of the 

 great Dravidian group of tribes who inhabited the Peninsula of 

 South India before the historic period. In the early centuries of the 

 Christian era, some tribes acquired a certain amount of civilization 

 and obtained by conquest possession of some more ancient 

 kingdoms. Several dynasties of Kadamba Eajas^ reigned at 

 Banawdsi, once an important city near Onur (Honur) in Sunda. 

 This city was an important seat of the Jaina sect. This is note- 

 worthy, as the Kurumbas of the south were in some way mixed ^ 

 up with the Jains. 



1 The derivation is doubtful, but it appears to be allied to Kdru (Tamil) short. 

 The word Kdrumba signifies a village in a desert tract and also wickedness. 

 The latter is a derivative meaning due to the predatory habits of these people' 

 The word Kurumha also in old Kanarese, it is said, signifies a sheep (Kurum- 

 badn, Tamil). But this animal is probably so called from being kept by a 

 Knrumban or dwarf. 



2 A part of Malabar is still called the district of Curnmbara.— Buchanan. 



3 There is also a custe in Malayalara condemned to slavery called Catal or 

 Cnrumbal, and in the plural Catulum or Curumbalum. — Buchanan. 



* May not this word be a compound of Katu or Katam (both meaning forest) 

 and Kftrumba, and perhaps be the same as Kdd-Kvirumba .'' 

 5 Catalogue Rals., Vol. Ill, p. 399. 



