1838.] Notes on the Hill I?ihabitants of the Goomsoor Mountains, Dl 



near the beginning, it was expressly said, that Codulu is plural. The 

 addition of " wanooloo," or correctly vdndlu, to the singular, is merely 

 adding the personal pronoun in the third person plural to the singular 

 of the noun, a custom not unusual in Telugu. The words in the Uriya 

 character and language, yield no more aid, as to the native Khond 

 plural, the Uriyas naturalize the word with their own plural mdni, as 

 the Telugu with their plural lu, and we English with our i^. With 

 respect to the statement that Khoi-jati is synonymous with ka-zdt in 

 Hindustani, some hesitation is felt. Dr. Maxwell could perhaps best 

 explain this little point. But since it appears from papers in the 

 Mackenzie Collection, that a wild class of people is scattered over the 

 peninsula, termed (still in Telugu writing) Coya-jdti ; it may be that 

 the term Khoi or Coya, is not a mere interrogative pronoun, but a pro- 

 -per name. The wild people in question are stated to be subdivided 

 into Chenju-vdndlu, Ydnddulu — Coya-vdndlu, and Irala-vdndla^ in 

 which terms the Telugu plural is conspicuous. These people differ in 

 minor customs, and some of them would appear most to resemble the 

 Goomsoor mountaineers, others the Bheels, and an intermediate class 

 may be the Gones. It is not known how this latter word is to be pro- 

 nounced : whether Go-nees, or Gons : the latter rather is supposed, and 

 if so, this epithet or title is familiar to more Southern India. It is found 

 in inscriptions; and was also borne by the race of Jnanta-kon, formerly 

 rulers of the hill fortress of Ginjee. However, not to rest undue 

 weight on any minor point, it is tolerably evident that there are exten- 

 sive tribes scattered throughout India not strictly speaking Hindus. 



Any coincidence of the Khond with the Udiya, or the Telugu, by no 

 means disproves the probability of an earlier common dialect, from 

 which all may be dialectical departures. As to the particular word 

 manusha, it is Tamil, wanting only a nasal 7i at the close ; but this word 

 is also Sanscrit Manuj a, whence it may have been derived, or the 

 Sanscrit may have adopted it from the common primitive dialect. The 

 coincidence between the Udiya and Tamil word for hill, adds a particle 

 of evidence to the probability of an early common dialect throughout 

 the peninsula. 



A later communication from the same gentleman, is the following : — 

 " The accompanying Telugu translation of a Wodia (abridged) his- 

 tory of the Bunje family (late Rajahs of Goomsoor) has been sent me 

 by a very intelligent Bramin, Sooriah Narrain Pantalloo, thetasildar of 

 Goomsoor, with a request that I would forward it to the Literary So- 



