Kolta, [584] Kolita, Kulta.--An agricultural caste of the Sambalpur
District and the adjoining Uriya States. In 1901 the Central Provinces
contained 127,000 Koltas out of 132,000 in India, but since the
transfer of Sambalpur the headquarters of the caste belong to Bihar
and Orissa, and only 36,000 remain in the Central Provinces. In Assam
more than two lakhs of persons were enumerated under the caste name
of Kalita in 1901, but in spite of the resemblance of the name the
Kalitas apparently have no connection with the Uriya country, while
the Koltas know nothing of a section of their caste in Assam. The
Koltas of Sambalpur say that they immigrated from Baud State,
which they regard as their ancestral home, and a member of their
caste formerly held the position of Diwan of the State. According
to one of their legends their first ancestors were born from the
leavings of food of the legendary Raja Janak of Mithila or Tirhut,
whose daughter Sita married King Rama of Ajodhya, the hero of the
Ramayana. Some Koltas went with Sita to Ajodhya and were employed as
water-bearers in the royal household. When Rama was banished they
accompanied him in his wanderings, and were permitted to settle in
the Uriya country at the request of the Raghunathia Brahmans, who
wanted cultivators to till the soil. Another legend is that once upon
a time, when Rama was wandering in the forests of Sambalpur, he met
three brothers and asked them to draw water for him. The first brought
water in a clean brass pot, and was called Sudh (good-mannered). The
second made a cup of leaves and drew water from a well with a rope;
he was called Dumal, from dori-mal, a coil of rope. The third brought
water only in a hollow gourd, and he was named Kolta, from ku-rita,
bad-mannered. This story serves to show that the Koltas, Sudhs and
Dumals acknowledge some connection, and in the Sambalpur District they
will take food together at festivals. But this degree of intimacy
may simply have arisen from their common calling of agriculture,
and may be noticed among the cultivating castes elsewhere, as the
Kirars, Gujars and Raghuvansis in Hoshangabad. The most probable
theory of the origin of the Koltas is that they are an offshoot of
the great Chasa caste, the principal cultivating caste of the Uriya
country, corresponding to the Kurmis and Kunbis in Hindustan and the
Deccan. Several of their family names are identical with those of the
Chasas, and there is actually a subcaste of Kolita Chasas. Mr. Hira
Lal conjectures that the Koltas may be those Chasas who took to
growing kultha (Dolichos uniflorus), a favourite pulse in Sambalpur;
just as the Santora Kurmis are so named from their growing san-hemp,
and the Alia Banias and Kunbis from the al or Indian madder. This
hypothesis derives some support from the fact that the Koltas have no
subcastes, and the formation of the caste may therefore be supposed
to have occurred at a comparatively recent period.