The " Koh" of Chota-Nagpore. 165 



but supremacy was claimed by the Rajpoot Rajahs over the Ho tribes 

 next to them, thus dividing the country and the people amongst four 

 Rajpoot chiefs, the Rajahs of Mohurbhunj and Porahat, Koer of 

 Seraikilla, and Thakoor of Khursowan. 



It is true that the chiefs of Singbhoom, ancestors of the Rajahs of 

 Porahat, Seraikilla and Thakoor of Khursowan, obtained great influ- 

 ence over their wild neighbours. They were gradually induced to 

 believe tales which gave to the founder of this family a miraculous 

 birth in their country, and they accorded to him divine honors, whilst 

 they repudiated the idea of his being their temporal chief. The 

 oldest surviving member of the Porahat family tells me that no 

 regular tribute was ever received from the Colehan, but they were 

 treated and employed rather as friendly allies than as subjects, and at 

 certain seasons presents of trifling value were received from them and 

 presents given in return. 



When a division of the estate of the Singhoom chief occurred, the 

 brothers each took, with the share assigned to him, a share in the good- 

 will of the Hos. Thus the Seraikilla and Khursowan families claimed 

 the allegiance of the tribes nearest to them. The claim of the 

 Mohurbhunj Rajah sprang up as the Kols extended their cultivation, 

 till it touched or ran over his boundary. But it is admitted that all 

 recorded attempts of the Rajpoot chiefs to subdue them had been 

 signally defeated. 



On the last occasion, the great grandfather of the present Maharajah 

 of Chota-Nagpore, at the head of 20,000 of his own men co-operating 

 with the forces of the Singbhoom Rajpoot chiefs, entered the Colehan. 

 The Hos allowed him to do this ; they then fell on his army in masses^ 

 and, routing it with immense slaughter, ignominiously expelled him, 

 pursuing him into his own territory, and severely retaliating on the 

 border villages of the Maharajah and his allies. 



It was no doubt in retaliation for these attacks on their independence 

 that the Hos now became, as they were found to be when first brought 

 to our notice (in 1819-20), the scourge of the inhabitants of the more 

 civilized parts of Singbhoom and of all the surrounding districts. 

 They shewed no mercy to the Braminical inhabitants of the villages 

 they attacked and pillaged. A long line of Bramin villages on the 

 Bramin river in Gangpoor was laid waste by them and has remained 



