_Kunbi_--The great agricultural caste of the Maratha country. In
the Central Provinces and Berar the Kunbis numbered nearly 1,400,000
persons in 1911; they belong to the Nagpur, Chanda, Bhandara, Wardha,
Nimar and Betul Districts of the Central Provinces. In Berar their
strength was 800,000, or nearly a third of the total population. Here
they form the principal cultivating class over the whole area except
in the jungles of the north and south, but muster most strongly in
the Buldana District to the west, where in some taluks nearly half the
population belongs to the Kunbi caste. In the combined Province they
are the most numerous caste except the Gonds. The name has various
forms in Bombay, being Kunbi or Kulambi in the Deccan, Kulwadi in
the south Konkan, Kanbi in Gujarat, and Kulbi in Belgaum. In Sanskrit
inscriptions it is given as Kutumbika (householder), and hence it has
been derived from _kutumba_, a family. A chronicle of the eleventh
century quoted by Forbes speaks of the Kutumbiks or cultivators of
the _grams,_ or small villages. [13] Another writer describing the
early Rajput dynasties says: [14] "The villagers were Koutombiks
(householders) or husbandmen (Karshuks); the village headmen were
Putkeels (patels)." Another suggested derivation is from a Dravidian
root _kul_ a husbandman or labourer; while that favoured by the caste
and their neighbours is from _kun_, a root, or _kan_ grain, and _bi_,
seed; but this is too ingenious to be probable.