OF BHARATAVARSA OR IXDIA. 
135 
ofclier Candalas of the district revere a deity called KancUyay 
who is most probably identical with Khandoba.^^ 
In a similar way I am inclined to associate the name of 
the Khandesh district with Khandn. Khandesh can be 
explained as signifying the Khaud country, Khanda + 
desa, Kliandadesd contracted into Khandesa, Khandesh. It 
is also possible to interpret it as the name of the lord of 
the Khands, Khanda, + Isd, Khandesa. 
Some religious customs can be traced to the Gronds. It 
is thus not unlikely that the Grondana worship, in which 
the Maratha Brahmans and other Hindus revere ParvatI, 
is of Gond origin, equally as the Gondala ceremony among 
the Kolis. In this case the tribal name of the Gaudian 
Gondhalh has been substituted to call the performance 
after the performers, which circumstance was forgotten in 
course of time. The term Pariah in its wrong derivation 
of the temple . . . Inside there is the image of Khande Rao and his wife 
Mhalsa, placed behind a Linga, which is raised a little from the floor . . . 
Although from the local nature of the worship of Khande Eao, the surname 
of Rao, and the engrafting of this worship on the more ancient adoration of 
tlie Linga, it would appear to be comparatively modern, still we cannot trace 
its origin by the light of authentic history." 
The passage in the Gazetteer of Aicrangabad,^^. 344-346, is taken from 
this account, to which is added the statement that " Khande Rao or Khan- 
doba of Ujain was the great champion of Brahmanism in the seventh century 
of the Christian era." The authority of this statement is unknown to me. 
About the worship of KJianddbd comi^are also the Indian Antiquanj, vol. 
X, p. 286, in the article Miirlin and JFdffhids. 
In the Memoir of the Origin of Slaves we read on p. 28: "The two 
classes of Koragars place some stone on a hillock, worship it by performing 
Puja, as the god of Koragars. The remaining classes worship a deity called 
Kandiya and pay her vows." 
=■* About the name of Khandesh compare " Rough Notes on Khandesh" 
by W. F. Sinclair, Bo.C.S., in the Indian Antiquary, vol. IV, p. 108 : " The 
term Khdndesh is of doubtful deiivation. It has been supposed to refer to the 
title of Khan used by the Sultans of Burhanpur, and has also been derived 
from Kdnh-desh, ' land of Krishna, ' (conf . Kanhpur) ; from Tan-desh, ' the 
land of thirst,' in allusion to its arid plains and scanty rainfall ; facetiously 
from Kantadesh, ' the land of thorns, ' in which it certainly abounds ; and 
finally the author of the Ayini Akbari and other Musulman writers allude to 
it as ' Khandesh, otherwise called Dandesh,' which might be derived from 
' DangdeSa,' the mountain and the plain. ... I am inclined myself to 
