KOTAH, a native state of India, in the Rajputana agency, with an area of 5684 sq. m. The country slopes gently northwards from the high table-land of Malwa, and is drained by the Chambal with its tributaries, all flowing in a northerly or north-easterly direction. The Mokandarra range, from 1200 to 1600 ft. above sea-level, runs from south-east to north-west. The Mokandarra Pass through these hills, in the neighbourhood of the highest peak (1671 ft.), has been rendered memorable by the passage of Colonel Monson’s army on its disastrous retreat in 1804. There are extensive game preserves, chiefly covered with grass. In addition to the usual Indian grains, wheat, cotton, poppy, and a little tobacco of good quality are cultivated. The manufactures are very limited. Cotton fabrics are woven, but are being rapidly superseded by the cheap products of Bombay and Manchaster. Articles of wooden furniture are also constructed. The chief articles of export are opium and grain; salt, cotton and woollen cloth are imported.
Kotah is an offshoot from Bundi state, having been bestowed upon a younger son of the Bundi raja by the emperor Shah Jahan in return for services rendered him when the latter was in rebellion against his father Jahangir. In 1897 a considerable portion of the area taken to form Jhalawar (q.v.) in 1838 was restored to Kotah. In 1901 the population was 544,879, showing a decrease of 24% due to the results of famine. The estimated revenue is £206,000; tribute, £28,000. The maharao Umad Singh, was born in 1873, and succeeded in 1889. He was educated at the Mayo College, Ajmere, and became a major in the British army. A continuation of the branch line of the Indian Midland railway from Goona to Baran passes through Kotah, and it is also traversed by a new line, opened in 1909. The state suffered from drought in 1896-1897, and again more severely in 1899-1900.
The town of Kotah is on the right bank of the Chambal. Pop. (1901), 33,679. It is surrounded and also divided into three parts by massive walls, and contains an old and a new palace of the maharao and a number of fine temples. Muslins are the chief articles of manufacture, but the town has no great trade, and this and the unhealthiness of the site may account for the decrease in population.
KOTAS (Kotar, Koter, Kohatur, Gauhatar), an aboriginal tribe of the Nilgiri hills, India. They are a well-made people, of good features, tall, and of a dull copper colour, but some of them are among the fairest of the hill tribes. They recognize no caste among themselves, but are divided into keris (streets), and a man must marry outside his keri. Their villages (of which there are seven) are large, averaging from thirty to sixty huts. They are agriculturists and herdsmen, and the only one of the hill tribes who practise industrial arts, being excellent as carpenters, smiths, tanners and basket-makers. They do menial work for the Todas, to whom they pay a tribute. They worship ideal gods, which are not represented by any images. Their language is an old and rude dialect of Kanarese. In 1901 they numbered 1267.
KOTKA, a seaport of Finland, in the province of Viborg, 35 m. by rail from Kuivola junction on the Helsingfors railway, on an island of the same name at the mouth of the Kymmene river. Pop. (1904), 7628. It is the chief port for exports from and imports to east Finland and a centre of the timber trade.
KOTRI, a town of British India, in Karachi district, Sind, situated on the right bank of the Indus. Pop. (1901), 7617. Kotri is the junction of branches of the North-Western railway, serving each bank of the Indus, which is here crossed by a railway bridge. It was formerly the station for Hyderabad, which lies across the Indus, and the headquarters of the Indus steam flotilla, now abolished in consequence of the development of railway facilities. Besides its importance as a railway centre, however, Kotri still has a considerable general transit trade by river.