15. Language.
The Khond or Kandh language, called Kui by the Khonds themselves, is spoken by rather more than half of the total body of the tribe. It is much more nearly related to Telugu than is Gondi and has no written character.[11]
[1] Kandh is the Uriya spelling, and Kond or Khond that of the Telugus.
[2] Linguistic Survey of India.
[3] Narsingha means a man-lion and is one of Vishnu’s incarnations; this subsept would seem, therefore, to have been formed since the Khonds adopted Hinduism.
[4] In Orissa, however, relationship through females is a bar to marriage, as recorded in Sir H. Risley’s article.
[5] Report on the Khonds, p. 56.
[6] Report, p. 59.
[7] Sir H. Risley notes that the elephant represented the earth-goddess herself, who was here conceived in elephant form. In the hill tracts of Gumsur she was represented in peacock form, and the post to which the victim was bound bore the effigy of a peacock. Macpherson also records that when the Khonds attacked the victim they shouted, ‘No sin rests on us; we have bought you with a price.’
[8] Golden Bough, 2nd ed. vol. ii. p. 241 sq.
[9] Pages 517–519. Published 1906.
[10] Journal, A. S. of Bengal, 1898.
[11] Sir G. A. Grierson’s Linguistic Survey, Munda and Dravidian Languages.