The " Kols" of Chota-Nagpore. 153 



The " 2M?" of Chota-Nagpore.— By Lt.-Col. E. T. Dalton, Commis- 

 sioner of Chota-Nagpore. 



[Received 27th July, 1866.] 



The country called Chota (or properly Chuttia) Nagpore is the 

 eastern portion of the extensive plateau of Central India on which are 

 the sources of the Koel, the Soobunreka, the Damoodah and other 

 less known Indian rivers. It extends into Sirgoojah and forms what is 

 called the Oopur Ghat or highland of Juspore, and it is connected by 

 a continuous chain of hills with the Vindhyan and Kymore ranges, 

 from which flow affluents of the Ganges, and with the highlands of 

 Omerkuntuck on which are the sources of the Nurbudda. That the 

 population of this watershed is found to be, for the most part, a hetero- 

 geneous collection of non-Arian tribes, is in itself a fair proof that these 

 tribes were at one time the inhabitants of the plains who, driven from 

 their original sites at different periods by Braminical invaders, gra- 

 dually fell back, following converging lines of rivers in their retreat, 

 till from different directions, nations, some bearing marks of common 

 origin though separated for ages, others bearing no trace of such 

 affinity, met at the sources of the streams, and formed new nationali- 

 ties in the secure asylum they found there. 



The plateau averages more than 2,000 feet above the sea level ; it 

 is on all sides somewhat difficult of access, and it is owing to the 

 security thus given, that the primitive tribes, still found on it, retained 

 for ages so much of their independence and idiosyncracy. After over- 

 coming the difficulties of the approach, these first settlers must have 

 rejoiced at finding they had not merely reached the summit of a 

 range of hills, but had ascended to a new country, well suited to their 

 wants and out of reach of their enemies ; and here they made their 

 final stand. 



They found a genial climate at this elevation and a well- wooded un- 

 dulating country, divided and diversified by interior ranges of hills 

 uplifting the fertilizing streams, or breaking out in rocky excrescences, 

 sometimes in vast semi-globular masses of granite, like sunken domes 

 of gigantic temples, sometimes in huge fragments piled in most fan- 



