OF BHARATAVARSA OR INDIA. 
117 
I believe that the Koris (Kohris) are of the same extrac- 
tion as the Kolis. The former are said to have emigrated 
from Benares, in the train of a Bhonsla prince of the 
Chandah branch.^" I am also inclined to connect the Koiris 
of Bengal with both these tribes.^^ 
Whether there exists any connection between the Kolis and 
the Graulis is doubtful. As was the case with Gauda, so also is 
the term Gauli differently interpreted. Some derive the name 
GauU from the Sanskrit word go, cow, and explain Gauli to 
signify cowherd, others connect it with KoU. It is even pos- 
sible that both derivations are right, and that the term Gauli 
represents originally two different, but equal-sounding words ; 
one being derived from KoU and the other from go. In the 
first ease it has an ethnological and in the other a professional 
meaning. To those Graulis who are cowmen both terms are 
*" See ibidem, pp. 107, 108 : " They produce sugar-cane in large quan- 
tities, the production of which is chiefly in their hands. The tribe has 
distinguished itself fur its great enterprise and energy in the excavation of 
noble tanks and in the formation of numerous embankments." According 
to the census of 1881, the Koris amount to 946,851, 843,422 of whom are 
found in the North- Western Provinces, 48,826 in the Central Provinces, and 
43,565 in Bengal. Compare Mr. Ch-irles Grant's Gazetteer of the Central 
Prooinces, pp. 61, 137, 181, 194 and 438 on the Koris (Kohris). 
*i Compare Colonel Dalton's Ethnology of India, pp. 320, 321 : " In some 
districts the Koiris appear to be more numerous than the Kurmis. The 
distinction between them is, that the former are generally rparket gardeners 
as well as agriculturists. Buchanan estimated that there were 30,000 
families of Koiris in the Shahabad District, and 45,000 families in Bihar. 
.... A learned pandit informs me that the derivation of the name is ku, 
earth, and art, enemy. They are so called from their constant attacks on the 
soil. Koiris, men and women, are always troubling it. . . Every three years 
they make offerings on a hill known as the Marang Btiru of the Kols, the god 
that is invoked by the aborigines, especiallj' when rain does not fall in due 
season." See also Rev. M. A. Sherring's Hindu Tribes and Castes, vol. I, 
pp. 325, 326: " These (the Koeris) and the Kumbhis are the great agri- 
cultural classes of these provinces. . . The Koeris and Kumbhis are 
agriculturists by profession. . . The Koeris are the principal growers of 
poppy, and producers of opium, both in Benares and Behar. . . The Koeria 
are numerous in the district of Jhansi, where they pursue the occupation of 
weaving. Their tradition is, that they came from Benares about seven 
hundred years ago." The census report of 1881 mentions 3,067 Koeris in 
Assam and 1,204,884 Koeris in Bengal. Rev. Sir G. CsML'^'h&Ws Ethnology 
of India, p. 107. 
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