240 
ON THE ORIGIXAL INHABITANTS 
not have been so puzzled about the military element so con- 
spicuous in their character. ^■''^ 
On the origin of the term Kadamba. 
Having been able to recognize in the Kurmis or Kumbis 
the well-known Kurumbas or Kudumbas, I do not believe that 
I go too far by suggesting a similar explanation for the 
name of the famous Kadamba dynasty of ancient times. 
Only mysterious legends which connect its founder with the 
Kadamba tree are known about this royal race. I suspect 
that behind the name Kadamba lurks that of Kudumba 
or Kurumba, and that the former was originally an acci- 
dental alteration through variation of sound, which, in coui-se 
of time, was accepted and used to obliterate the real origin 
of the ruling tribe. In this case, its ethnological status is 
ascertained, and I shall now enquire into the origin of the 
title Kadamba. 
nearly as pure as the Ahirs. They formerly ate -wild pork, hut now reject it, 
and will not acknowledge that they drink spirituous liquor. They keep 
widows as concuhines. Their Gurus and Purohitsare the same with those of 
the Ahirs." 
Compare further Sir Hem-y M. EUiot's Suppl-e-mental Glossary of Indian 
Terms, vol. I, pp. 155, 157 ; H. H. "Wilson's Glossarij, pp. 302, SO-1 and 30i, 
•an^er Kimbi 2L-adL Kurmi : " Kiirmi, Eoonnee (IL. J^)- '^^^ caste of 
agriculturists, or of a member of it, in Eastern and Centi-al Hindustan, being 
the same, essentially, as the Eiinbis of the west and south." Consiilt also 
Colonel Dalton's Descriptive Ethnologi/ of Bengal, pp. 306, 308, 317-327 ; Sir 
G-eorge Campbell's Ethnology of India, pp. 40, 92-95 ; Rev. M. A. Sherring's 
HindK Tribes and Castes, vol. I, pp. 323-325 ; vol. II, pp. 99-101, 1S7, 188 ; 
yol. Ill, pp. 150-152. 
•'5 See Sir George Campbell's Ethfiology of India, p. 94 :'• Nothing puzzled 
me more than this, viz., to imderstand whence came the great Maratta mili- 
tarjf element. In the Punjab one can easily understand the som-ces of Sikh 
power ; every peasant looks fit to be a soldier. But the great mass of the 
Maratta Koonbees look like nothing of the kind, and are the quietest and 
most obedient of humble and unwarlike cultivators. . Although the Koonbee 
element was the foundation of the Maratta power, though Sevajee and some 
of his chiefs were Koonbees, it appears that those people came almost 
exclusively from a comparatively small district ni-ar Sattjufi, a billy i-egion 
where, as I judge, the Koonbees are much mixed with numerous aboriginal 
and somi-aboriginal tribes of Mhai-s and othci-s."' Compare about the Kuubis 
also the GMCtUer of AnrMigabad, pp. 2lJO-270. 
