Koli.--A primitive tribe akin to the Bhils, who are residents of the
western Satpura hills. They have the honorific title of Naik. They
numbered 36,000 persons in 1911, nearly all of whom belong to
Berar, with the exception of some 2000 odd, who live in the Nimar
District. These have hitherto been confused with the Kori caste. The
Koris or weavers are also known as Koli, but in Nimar they have the
designation of Khangar Koli to distinguish them from the tribe of
the same name. The Kolis proper are found in the Burhanpur tahsil,
where most villages are said to possess one or two families, and
on the southern Satpura hills adjoining Berar. They are usually
village servants, their duties being to wait on Government officers,
cleaning their cooking-vessels and collecting carts and provisions. The
duties of village watchman or kotwar were formerly divided between
two officials, and while the Koli did the most respectable part of the
work, the Mahar or Balahi carried baggage, sent messages, and made the
prescribed reports to the police. In Berar the Kolis acted for a time
as guardians of the hill passes. A chain of outposts or watch towers
ran along the Satpura hills to the north of Berar, and these were
held by Kolis and Bhils, whose duties were to restrain the predatory
inroads of their own tribesmen, in the same manner as the Khyber
Rifles now guard the passes on the North-West Frontier. And again
along the Ajanta hills to the south of the Berar valley a tribe of
Kolis under their Naiks had charge of the ghats or gates of the ridge,
and acted as a kind of local militia paid by assignments of land in
the villages. [570] In Nimar the Kolis, like the Bhils, made a trade
of plunder and dacoity during the unsettled times of the eighteenth
century, and the phrase 'Nahal, Bhil, Koli' is commonly used in old
Marathi documents to designate the hill-robbers as a class. The priest
of a Muhammadan tomb in Burhanpur still exhibits an imperial Parwana
or intimation from Delhi announcing the dispatch of a force for the
suppression of the Kolis, dated A.D. 1637. In the Bombay Presidency,
so late as 1804, Colonel Walker wrote: "Most Kolis are thieves by
profession, and embrace every opportunity of plundering either public
or private property." [571] The tribe are important in Bombay, where
their numbers amount to more than 1 1/2 million. It is supposed that
the common term 'coolie' is a corruption of Koli, [572] because the
Kolis were usually employed as porters and carriers in western India,
as 'slave' comes from Slav. The tribe have also given their name to
Colaba. [573] Various derivations have been given of the meaning of the
word Koli, [574] and according to one account the Kolis and Mairs were
originally the same tribe and came from Sind, while the Mairs were the
same as the Meyds or Mihiras who entered India in the fifth century
as one of the branches of the great White Hun horde. "Again, since
the settlement of the Mairs in Gujarat," the writer of the Gujarat
Gazetteer continues, "reverses of fortune, especially the depression
of the Rajputs under the yoke of the Muhammadans in the fourteenth
century, did much to draw close the bond between the higher and middle
grades of the warrior class. Then many Rajputs sought shelter among
the Kolis and married with them, leaving descendants who still claim
a Rajput descent and bear the names of Rajput families. Apart from
this, and probably as the result of an original sameness of race,
in some parts of Gujarat and Kathiawar intermarriage goes on between
the daughters of Talabda Kolis and the sons of Rajputs." Thus the
Thakur of Talpuri Mahi Kantha in Bombay calls himself a Pramara Koli,
and explains the term by saying that his ancestor, who was a Pramara
or Panwar Rajput, took water at a Koli's house. [575] As regards
the origin of the Kolis, however, whom the author of the Gujarat
Gazetteer derives from the White Huns, stating them to be immigrants
from Sind, another and perhaps more probable theory is that they are
simply a western outpost of the great Kol or Munda tribe, to which
the Korkus and Nahals and perhaps the Bhils may also belong. Mr. Hira
Lal suggests that it is a common custom in Marathi to add or alter so
as to make names end in i. Thus Halbi for Halba, Koshti for Koshta,
Patwi for Patwa, Wanjari for Banjara, Gowari for Goala; and in the
same manner Koli from Kol. This supposition appears a very reasonable
one, though there is little direct evidence. The Nimar Kolis have no
tradition of their origin beyond the saying--
Siva ki jholi
Us men ka Koli,
or 'The Koli was born from Siva's wallet.'