Note 152 — K (continued 5)

Konda Dora.—The Konda Doras are a caste of hill cultivators, found chiefly in Vizagapatam. Concerning them Surgeon-Major W. R. Cornish writes as follows.152 “Contrasting strangely with the energetic, patriarchal, and land-reverencing Parja (Poroja), are the neighbouring indigenous tribes found along the slopes of the eastern ghauts. They are known as Konda Doras, Konda Kāpus, and Ojas. From what has been ascertained of their languages, it seems certain that, divested of the differences which have been engrafted upon them by the fact of the one being influenced by Uriya and the other by Telugu, they are substantially of the same origin as the Parja language and the Khond language. But the people themselves seem to have entirely lost all those rights to the soil, which are now characteristic of the more northern tribes. They are completely at the mercy of late immigrants, so much so that, though they call themselves Konda Doras, they are called by the Bhaktas, their immediate superiors, Konda Kāpus. If they are found living in a village with no Telugu superior, they are known as Doras. If, on the other hand, such a man is at the head of the village affairs, they are to him as adscripti glebæ, and are denominated Kāpus or ryots (cultivators). It is apparent that the comparatively degraded position that this particular soil-folk holds is due to the influence of the Telugu colonists; and the reason why they have been subjected to a greater extent than the cognate tribes further inland is possibly that the Telugu colonization is of more ancient date than the Uriya colonization. It may further be surmised that, from the comparative proximity of the Telugu districts, the occupation of the crests of these ghāts partook rather of the character of a conquest than that of mere settlings in the land. But, however it came about, the result is most disastrous. Some parts of Pāchipenta, Hill Mādugulu, and Kondakambēru, which have been occupied by Telugu-speaking folk, are far inferior in agricultural prosperity to the inland parts, where the Uriyas have assumed the lead in the direction of affairs.”