Koya

Clans and Kinship

All Koyas belong to one of five unranked, exogamous, patrilineal phratries called gotram. Koyas agree that there are five but name them differently from area to area; each has its own deities and a sacred geography in Bastar, and its gods are carried in procession through the Koya country every five years (Tyler). Each phratry is divided into many named exogamous lineages, often named after plants and animals, and a lineage keeps the icon of its god, a metal spear-point, hidden near the 'god shed' at the edge of the village. Cross-cousin marriage is preferred. Twenty-five villages formed a council under a headman and his assistant. The Godavari Gazetteer of 1907 calls the exogamous divisions gattas and notes that members of some marked them on the forehead with a spot or a line (Thurston), and the Patadi are the bards of the Koya clan deities (TCR&TI 1966).

The five gotrams in the order of the Tribal Cultural Research and Training Institute, Hyderabad (The Koyas of Andhra Pradesh, 1966), with the equivalents that Hemingway's Godavari Gazetteer gives (quoted by Thurston, 1909); the Gazetteer also lists an Aro ('sixth') and a Nutomuppayo gatta. Cain's lists of the 1870s give other names (Perumboyudu, Madogutta, Peregatta, Matamuppayo and Vidogutta among the hill Koyas; Paredugatta, Mundegutta, Peramboyina and Wikaloru among the lowland Koyas), and Tyler notes that names differ from area to area. The lineages within the gotrams are not listed.

In the Official Lists

• Scheduled Tribe

  Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh

  Listed as: Koya

  Telangana and Andhra Pradesh: 'Koya, Goud, Rajah, Rasha Koya, Lingadhari Koya (ordinary), Kottu Koya, Bhine Koya, Rajkoya'. Karnataka and Maharashtra: 'Koya, Bhine Koya, Rajkoya'. Odisha: 'Koya'. In Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, Koya is also one of the names in the long Gond entry.

Census 2011 counted the Koya separately only where Koya is an entry of its own; Koyas within the Gond entries of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra are counted as Gond. The census entries also name sub-groups: in undivided Andhra Pradesh 'Doli Koya, Gutta Koya, Kammara Koya, Musara Koya, Oddi Koya, Pattidi Koya' among others, and in Odisha 'Gumba Koya, Koitur Koya, Kamar Koya, Musara Koya'. Checked against the census tables and Wikipedia's compilation of the order.

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

The Rev. J. Cain, writing in the 1870s and 1880s (quoted by Thurston, 1909), recorded that the Koyas of the plains held that famine and quarrels had driven them down from the Bastar plateau about two hundred years before, a kinship the hill Koyas of Bastar (Gutta Kois) acknowledged. They called themselves Koitor, which Telugu speakers rendered as Dorala, 'lords'. A tale recorded by the Tribal Cultural Research and Training Institute of Andhra Pradesh (1966) traces the Koyas to 101 children born under a rela tree (Cassia fistula) on an island, Nattadigadda, surrounded by seven seas.

History

Under the Bhadrachalam zamindars twenty-five Koya villages formed a samutu, each samutu bound in turn to send men to carry loads for the zamindar's troops, and Cain recorded how often Koya villages were plundered by the petty chiefs of the area (Thurston). Tyler writes that the zamindars who held grants from outside rulers controlled only the plains villages; British interest came with the Singareni coal mines and attempts to make the Godavari navigable, and Christian missions began in the 1860s around Dummagudem. The loss of land to settlers from the plains and restrictions on the use of the forests have been lasting Koya grievances (Tyler).

Faith and Worship

Koyas make offerings of animals, grain and liquor to many deities. The most important are female: the earth mother, the smallpox goddess and the goddesses of the lineages and phratries, with male deities such as the Lord of the Jungle and the Lord of Animals as their consorts; ancestors are honoured at an ancestor pot kept near the hearth (Tyler). Village and lineage priests make the sacrifices, and shamans find the cause of illness. A newly married couple visits the shrine of the village goddess, Mutyalamma (TCR&TI 1966). Many Koyas around Dummagudem are Christian.

Deities named in the sources: Mutyalamma

Customs

A marriage is arranged by negotiation or, in the past, by capture; the groom's side bears the cost of the wedding, at which a necklace of black beads is put on the bride and dancers perform with bison-horn head-dresses (TCR&TI 1966). Couples usually live with the husband's family, though bride-service is common and families without sons may take a resident son-in-law; widows may remarry, often a younger brother of the late husband, and divorce is fairly easy. Land and goods are divided equally among the sons, with a share set aside for the marriages of unmarried daughters (Tyler).

Stories and Legends