Kondh

Clans and Kinship

Risley (1891), from an inquiry made for him by James Taylor, tahsildar of the Kandhmals, found the Kandhs divided into fifty exogamous gochis, each named after a muta, a group of villages, whose members believe they share one ancestor and live together as a body of kin. Each gochi was split into klambu, sub-septs that were in effect extended families settled in one village of the muta, and the whole gochi met in council on grave matters. Both go by the father's side. A Kandh may not marry in his own gochi, nor in his mother's klambu for three or four generations. SCSTRTI (2013) gives the same picture, calling the clan a mutha and counting fifty, and describes four functional groups (punja) within the territorial clan groups: mondal, bismajhi, jani and pujari. Villages have a saanta, mondal, jani, bismajhi and barik, and each mutha has its own head, the mandal, majhi or patro.

The fifty gochis Risley lists for the Kandhs of the Kandhmals (1891, vol. II, Appendix I, pp. 68-69), in his numbered order, from Taylor's inquiry. SCSTRTI (2013) names Saiti, Paba, Jurapi, Bongodi, Baka, Bidu, Teriki, Damsing and Pira among today's fifty muthas, which match Saitingia, Pobingia, Jorapongia, Bakolmendi, Bidumendi, Teridikia, Domsing and others here. The scans of Risley's klambu lists are hard to align beyond the three noted.

In the Official Lists

• Scheduled Tribe

  Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal

  Listed as: Khond

  Odisha: 'Khond, Kond, Kandha, Nanguli Kandha, Sitha Kandha', to which the census table adds Kondh, Kui, Buda Kondh, Bura Kandha, Desia Kandha, Dungaria Kondh, Kutia Kandha, Kandha Gauda, Muli Kondh, Malua Kondh, Pengo Kandha, Raja Kondh and Raj Khond. Andhra Pradesh and Telangana: 'Kondhs, Kodi, Kodhu, Desaya Kondhs, Dongria Kondhs, Kuttiya Kondhs, Tikiria Kondhs, Yenity Kondhs'. Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra: 'Kondh, Khond, Kandh'. Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal: 'Khond'.

Checked against the 2011 census table of each state and Wikipedia's compilation of the order; amendments after 2011 were not checked. The Andhra Pradesh table covers the state before Telangana was formed in 2014. Odisha also lists Kandha Gauda as a separate tribe (26,403 in 2011), not counted here. The PVTG list from the 2019 PIB release names the Dongria Khond and Kutia Khond for Odisha and for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Checked on 2026-11-07 against the sources below. The lists are amended from time to time and can differ by district; for a certificate, the current order or the state's list is what counts.

Name and Origin

Thurston (1909), citing the Madras census of 1891, notes that the Kondhs call themselves Kui and that Macpherson derived Khond from the Telugu konda, a hill; Cotterell preferred the spelling Kondh as closer to the people's own speech. SCSTRTI (2013) gives Kuiloku, Kuienju and Kuinga as their own names. Thurston also records a tradition that four Kondhs, Kasi, Mendora, Bolti and Bolo, brought their ancestor Mandia Patro from Jorasingi in Boad and gave him and his descendants authority over Mahasingi and the neighbouring tracts, on condition that he settle their disputes.

History

Risley (1891) wrote that the Kandhs had been under the close watch of British officers since 1837, because human sacrifice (meriah) and infanticide were then practised among them; SCSTRTI (2013) says human beings were sacrificed at the Meria festival in the past, and calls the festival today a symbol of Kandha identity. The Kondh now live in all thirty districts of Odisha, most of them in the south. SCSTRTI describes sections at different stages of change, from the Kutia Kondh of Belghar and the Dongria Kondh around Bissamcuttack, who keep more of the old ways, to the Desia Kondh of the Phulbani plains, who have taken up many Hindu customs.

Faith and Worship

SCSTRTI (2013) records Dharni Penu, the earth goddess, as the supreme deity, whose altar stands in the village street; other deities are Jatrakudi of the village, Gungi Penu of streams, Bhima Penu of the mountains, Lai Penu of the forest, Sita Penu of wealth and Birna Penu of rain. Ancestor spirits are worshipped, and rites are led by the jani, lamba and pujari, the disari (astrologer), and the beju and bejuni. Buffaloes, goats, pigs and fowls are sacrificed. Thurston (1909) adds that settled Kondhs worshipped deities ranging from their own Jakara to the Hindu gods.

Deities named in the sources: Dharni Penu

Customs

Unmarried young people sleep in dormitories, called dhangda-dhangdi basa, idu and other names; young men from the villages into which they may marry visit the girls' dormitory in the evening and leave before dawn (SCSTRTI). Thurston (1909) describes the dhangadi basa in the same way. Mates are found by negotiation, by service and by capture, with a bride-price in cash and kind, and levirate and sororate are allowed. Both burial and cremation are practised; death pollution lasts ten days, with purification on the eleventh. Kandha women have been known for facial tattoos (SCSTRTI 2013).