Korku. [591]--A Munda or a Kolarian tribe akin to the Korwas, with whom
they have been identified in the India Census of 1901. They number
about 150,000 persons in the Central Provinces and Berar, and belong
to the west of the Satpura plateau, residing only in the Hoshangabad,
Nimar, Betul and Chhindwara Districts. About 30,000 Korkus dwell in
the Berar plain adjoining the Satpuras, and a few thousand belong
to Bhopal. The word Korku means simply 'men' or 'tribesmen,' koru
being their term for a man and ku a plural termination. The tribe
have a language of their own, which resembles that of the Kols of
Chota Nagpur. The language of the Korwas, another Munda tribe found
in Chota Nagpur, is also known as Koraku or Korku, and one of their
subcastes has the same name. [592] Some Korkus or Mowasis are found
in Chota Nagpur, and Colonel Dalton considered them a branch of the
Korwas. Another argument may be adduced from the sept names of the
Korkus which are in many cases identical with those of the Kols
and Korwas. There is little reason to doubt then that the Korkus
are the same tribe as the Korwas, and both of these may be taken to
be offshoots of the great Kol or Munda tribe. The Korkus have come
much further west than their kinsmen, and between their residence
on the Mahadeo or western Satpura hills and the Korwas and Kols,
there lies a large expanse mainly peopled by the Gonds and other
Dravidian tribes, though with a considerable sprinkling of Kols in
Mandla, Jubbulpore and Bilaspur. These latter may have immigrated in
comparatively recent times, but the Kolis of Bombay may not improbably
be another offshoot of the Kols, who with the Korkus came west at a
period before the commencement of authentic history. [593] One of the
largest subdivisions of the Korkus is termed Mowasi, and this name
is sometimes applied to the whole tribe, while the tract of country
where they dwell was formerly known as the Mowas. Numerous derivations
of this term have been given, and the one commonly accepted is that
it signifies 'The troubled country,' and was applied to the hills
at the time when bands of Koli or Korku freebooters, often led by
dispossessed Rajput chieftains, harried the rich lowlands of Berar
from their hill forts on the Satpuras, exacting from the Marathas,
with poetical justice, the payments known as 'Tankha Mowasi' for the
ransom of the settled and peaceful villages of the plains. The fact,
however, that the Korkus found in Chota Nagpur are also known as Mowasi
militates against this supposition, for if the name was applied only
to the Korkus of the Satpura plateau it would hardly have travelled
as far east as Chota Nagpur. Mr. Hislop derived it from the mahua
tree. But at any rate Mowasi meant a robber to Maratha ears, and the
forests of Kalibhit and Melghat are known as the Mowas.