Kalanga.--A cultivating caste of Chhattisgarh numbering 1800 persons
in 1911. In Sambalpur they live principally in the Phuljhar zamindari
on the border, between Chhattisgarh and the Uriya track. The Kalangas
appear to be a Dravidian tribe who took up military service and
therefore adopted a territorial name, Kalanga being probably derived
from Kalinga, the name of the sea-board of the Telugu country. The
Kalangas may be a branch of the great Kalingi tribe of Madras. They
have mixed much with the Kawars, and in Phuljhar say that they have
three branches, the Kalingia, Kawar and Chero Kalangas; Kawar and
Chero are names for the same tribe, and the last two branches are thus
probably a mixture of Kalingis and Kawars, while the first comprises
the original Kalingis. The Kalangas themselves, like the Kawars,
say that they are the descendants of the Kauravas of the Mahabharata,
and that they came from northern India with the Rajas of Patna, whom
they still serve. But their features indicate their Dravidian descent
as also their social customs, especially that of killing a cock with
the bare hands on the birth of a child, and anointing the infant's
forehead with its blood. They have not retained their Telugu language,
however, and like the Kawars now speak a dialect of Chhattisgarhi at
home, while many also know Uriya.