Kotharya.—(A store-keeper.) Subcaste of Chitrakathi.
Kotwāl.—(Keeper of a castle, or a village watchman.) Honorific title of the Khangār caste. A surname of Yajurvedi Brāhmans in Saugor. A section of Halba.
Kotwār.—A person holding the office of village watchman. This post is usually assigned to members of the lowest or impure castes derived from the aboriginal tribes, such as the Māhars, Rāmosis, Gāndas, Pankas, Mīnas and Khangārs. Some of these were or still are much addicted to crime. The name kotwār appears to be a corruption of kotwāl, the keeper or guardian of a kot or castle. Under native rule the kotwāl was the chief of police in important towns, and the central police office in some towns is still called the kotwāli after him. In some villages there are still to be found both a kotwāl and a kotwār; in this case the former performs the duties of watch and ward of the village, and the latter has the menial work of carrying messages, collecting supplies and so on. Both are paid by fixed annual contributions of grain from the cultivators. In Hoshangābād the kotwār is allowed to glean for a day in the fields of each tenant after the crop has been removed. It would appear that the kotwār was chosen from the criminal castes as a method of insurance. The kotwār was held responsible for the good behaviour of his caste-fellows, and was often under the obligation of making good any property stolen by them. And if a theft occurred in another village and the thief was traced into the borders of the kotwār’s village he was bound to take up the pursuit and show that the thief had passed beyond his village, or to pay for the stolen property. Thieves were sometimes tracked by the kotwār, and sometimes in Gujarāt and Central India by a special official called Paggal,[52] who measured their footprints with a string, and in this way often followed them successfully from village to village.[53] The rule that the kotwār had to make good all thefts occurring in his village or perpetrated by criminals belonging to it, can only have been enforced to a very partial extent, as unless he could trace the property he would be unable to pay any substantial sum out of his own means. Still, it apparently had a considerable effect in the protection of property in the rural area, for which the regular police probably did very little. It was similarly the custom to employ a chaukidār or night-watchman to guard private houses when the owners could afford it, and this man was taken from a criminal caste on the same principle.
The kotwār was also the guardian of the village boundaries, and his opinion was often taken as authoritative in all cases of disputes about land. This position he perhaps occupied as a representative of the pre-Aryan tribes, the oldest residents of the country, and his appointment may have also been partly based on the idea that it was proper to employ one of them as the guardian of the village lands, just as the priest of the village gods of the earth and fields was usually taken from these tribes.
In some localities those members of an impure caste such as the Mahārs, who hold the office of village watchman, obtain a certain rise in status on account of the office, and show a tendency to marry among themselves. Similarly persons of the impure Gānda caste, who joined the Kabīrpanthi sect and now form a separate and somewhat higher caste under the name of Panka, usually work as village watchmen in preference to the Gāndas. Under British rule the kotwār has been retained as a village policeman, and his pay increased and generally fixed in cash. Besides patrolling the village, he has to report all cognisable crime at the nearest police post as well as births and deaths occurring in the village, and must give general assistance to the regular police in the detection of crime. Kotwār is used in Saugor as a synonym for the Chadār caste. It is also a subcaste of the Kori caste.
Kowa.—(A crow.) A section of Tamera and of Gond in Chānda.
Koya A subtribe of Gond in Bastar.
Koyudu.—A synonym of Gond in Chānda used by Telugus.
Kramikul.—A section of Komti. They do not use the black radish.
Kshatriya.—Name of the second Hindu classical caste or the warrior caste. Synonym for Rājpūt.