1840.] The Hodesum (improperly called KolehanJ. 695 



the Mohanuddee. The Shunk is said to be navigable above Gangpoor 

 for tolerably large boats, and may therefore be presumed to become 

 a considerable river in its passage to the southward ; watered by such 

 fine streams, it is difficult to imagine the whole of those regions, to 

 be mere wastes of jungle, which would not repay the trouble of 

 exploring them. But they must ever remain unknown, so long as 

 the inhabitants retain their primitive habits, and aversion to visiting 

 other countries, and until more enterprising people than the timid 

 Hindoos, settle in their vicinity. 



These remarks, vague as they are, may serve to define the limits 

 of this wild and aboriginal race ; for beyond the precincts thus roughly 

 sketched, I am unaware of their language extending. It must be 

 remembered that the inhabitants of Chota Nagpoor, although indis- 

 criminately called Koles, are a totally distinct race, having different 

 languages, manners, and origin. These latter, properly named " Oradus," 

 were the first known inhabitants of Roidas (Rotas) and parts of 

 Reewa. Their sudden transmigration across the Soane, and which is 

 ascribed by them to inroads of Hindoos from the vicinity of the 

 Ganges, may be attributed to the expulsion of the latter by their 

 Moohomedan conquerors, but at what precise epoch, it is difficult to 

 determine. 



It is these Oradus who first give us accounts of a people called 

 Moondas, whom they found in possession of Chootia* Nagpoor at the 

 time of their flight into it. They state them to have been a wild 

 people, living chiefly by hunting, and who offered no opposition to 

 the Oradus settling in the fine open tracts to the northward of Sone- 

 poor, and cultivating lands of which they themselves scarcely knew 

 the value. Being a peaceable, industrious race, the Oradus gave no 

 umbrage to their hosts, and very shortly after, the entire residue 

 of the immigrants, who had for a time taken refuge in the uninviting 

 jungles of Palamoo and Burhwe, passed over into Chota Nagpoor, 

 where they remained in great harmony together, until the Hindoos 

 came spreading further in, and attracted by the beauty and fertility 

 of the country, by degrees made themselves masters of the soil, A 

 Bramin from Benares, imposed upon the credulous Oradus, by 



* Misnamed "Chota." 



