Koch people

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Not to be confused with Rajbongshi people.

Koch
Koch
Koch male and female 1972.jpg
Koch male and female 1872
Regions with significant populations
 India (Assam, Meghalaya)
              India36,434 [1]
              Assam12,550[2]
              Meghalaya23,199[3]
Languages
Koch
Religion
Animism[4]
Related ethnic groups
Garo people, Khasi people , Rabha people , Mech people
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The Koch are a small trans-border ethnic group of Assam and Meghalaya in India and northern Bangladesh.[8] The group consists of nine matrilineal and strictly exogamous clans, with some of them preserving a hitherto sparsely documented Boro-Garo language called Koch, whereas others have switched to local varieties of Indo-Aryan languages.[9] It is a Scheduled Tribe in Meghalaya , India.[10][11] Koches want to preserve language and culture and heritage.[12]

The Koch people in this group are those who have preserved their languages, their animistic religions and follow non-Hindu customs and traditions.[4] They are related but distinguished from the empire building Koch (the Rajbongshi people) and the Hindu caste called Koch in Assam which receives converts from different tribes.[13]

Etymology of Koch[]

According to Tabaqat-i-Nasiri , Kamrud (Kamrup) was inhabited by the Koch, Mech & Tharu .[14] According to Yogini Tantra, Koches were called as Kuvacha.[15] According to Fatiyah-i-Ibriah, Cooch behar was inhabited Koch[16]

Groups and Clans[]

The Koch people consist of nine ethno-linguistic groups: Tintekiya, Wanang, Koch-Rabha/Kocha, Harigaya, Margan, Chapra, Satpari, Sankar and Banai. These groups are generally endogamous, with very little intermarriages till recently. Each of these nine groups have matrilineal and strictly exogamous clans called nikini.[17] The matrilineal rules of the Koch are not as rigid as the Garo and the Khasi peoples.[18]

History[]

The original homeland of the Koches is assumed to be in Tibet from where they populated the present-day Western Assam and North Bengal.[19] In Takabat-i-Nasiri, which contain records of Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khalji expedition into Kamrupa in the early part of the 13th century, described the people who formed the population as Kunch (Koch), Mej/Meg (Mech), Tiharu (Taru) of Mongoloid appearance.[20][21] These population made a impression on the Turks, who had similar features as them, i.e having slanting eyes, snub nose, high cheek bones, yellow complexion of the Mongols and who spoke a language different than the rest of the subcontinent.[22]

A big part of Koch history is that of Koch dynasty. Koch Hajo (a Koch chief)[23] had two daughters, Hira and Jira. Of the two, Hira was married to Hariya Mandal alias Hariya Mech (a Mech chief ).[24] Hira gave birth to Bisu who was Hinduised by the Brahman priest as Biswa Singha.[25] Biswa Singha was to become the progenitor king of the Koch dynasty of the Kamata Kingdom.[26]

Notes[]

  1. ^ "Census of India Website : Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India" (PDF).
  2. ^ "C-16 Population By Mother Tongue - Assam". censusindia.gov.in. Retrieved 12 April 2020.
  3. ^ "Census of India Website : Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India". Retrieved 11 August 2020.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b "The Koch included in this report are those who preserved their tribal dialects, animistic religion and non-Hindu cultures and traditions." (Kondakov 2013:5)
  5. ^ "639 Identifier Documentation: aho – ISO 639-3". SIL International (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics). SIL International. Retrieved 29 June 2019. Ahom [aho]
  6. ^ "Population by Religious Communities". Census India – 2001. Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. Retrieved 1 July 2019. Census Data Finder/C Series/Population by Religious Communities
  7. ^ "Population by religion community – 2011". Census of India, 2011. The Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Archived from the original on 25 August 2015.
  8. ^ "Koch is a people group mainly found in the Indian states of Meghalaya and Assam and in northern Bangladesh. The Koch people call themselves Kocho (in Meghalaya) or Kocha (in Lower Assam). The number of Koch in Meghalaya is about 25,000 people (Census 2011). (Kondakov 2020:1)
  9. ^ "The clans are matrilineal and strictly exogamous (Koch 1984:180), i.e. marriages are not permitted within the same clan. The first six groups have preserved their original Tibeto-Burman forms of speech while the remaining three have long switched to local Indo-Aryan varieties." (Kondakov 2020:1)
  10. ^ The STs in Meghalaya are predominantly rural (84.4 per cent). Individual ST wise, Koch are overwhelmingly confined to rural areas (97.2 per cent), followed by Raba(92.6 per cent), Hajong (91.4 per cent), and Garo (88.7 per cent). On the contrary, higher urban population has been registered among Synteng (28.2 per cent) and Khasi (18.6per cent).
  11. ^ In Meghalaya, Koches are government notified scheduled tribe.(Census of India)
  12. ^ "Koch union seeks to preserve culture". www.telegraphindia.com. Retrieved 11 July 2019.
  13. ^ "The Koch of western Meghalaya also claim relationship with those empire-building Koch. On the other hand, Koch is known as a Hindu caste found all over the Brahmaputra Valley (Majumdar 1984: 147), and receives converts to Hinduism from different tribes (Gait 1933: 43)." (Kondakov 2013:4)
  14. ^ (Salam , 1902:65)
  15. ^ The Yogini Trantra, which was composed in Assam itself in about the 16th century, refers to the Koches as kuvachas(Nath:3)
  16. ^ Cooch behar was inhabited by Makh (Mech) and Kuj (Koch) . Raja belong to First tribe(Salam , 1902:11)
  17. ^ Kondakov (2013, p. 5)
  18. ^ Kondakov (2013, p. 7)
  19. ^ (Nath 1989:4)
  20. ^ (Chatterji 1951:114)
  21. ^ "an account of the two expeditions of Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khalji to the kingdom of Kamarupa (ancient assam) in the first part of the 13th century, noted that during that time this region..Kamarupa was inhabited by Kunch(Koch), Mej/Meg (Mech), Tiharu (Taru) tribes of Turks countenance. S.K Chatterji in this connection rightly observes that their Mongoloid features and speech made a distinct impression upon the Turks, who were also members of the same race"(Nath 1989:3)
  22. ^ "we read in Persian history that these races [Koch, Mech, Taru] had Turki countenances (i.e slanting eyes, snub nose, high cheek-bones and yellow complexion of the Mongols), and they spoke a 'different idiom' from the language of India proper"(Chatterji 1951:101)
  23. ^ "They ruled for only eight years and soon the rude tribes specially the Koches "who had a number of chiefs, at first independent, but who gradually united under the authority of one of themselves named Hajo,.."(Nath 1989:17)
  24. ^ "He [Koch Hajo, a Koch chief] had two daughters Hira and Jira of whom Hira was married to Hariya, a member of the impure tribe called Mech. Of them was born Bisu"(Nath 1989:17)
  25. ^ "the Koches were adapted to tribal ways of living at the time and Bisu's family members largely cultivated cottons on the hills. However when he acquired power to control the surrounding situation, the Brahmanas as pointed out by Gait, soon found him out and Hinduised him and his family, and called him Biswa Singha"(Gogoi 2002:18)
  26. ^ Chaudhuri, Harendra Narayan (1903). The Cooch Behar state and its land revenue settlements. Cooch Behar. pp. 225, 226.

Bibliography[]

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