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Kurumbas

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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and Kurubas, aboriginal tribes of southern India, by some thought to be of distinct races. There are two types of Kurumbas, those who live on the Nilgiri plateau, speak the Kurumba dialect and are mere savages; and those who live in the plains, speak Kanarese and are civilized. The former are a small people, with wild matted hair and scanty beard, sickly-looking, pot-bellied, large-mouthed, with projecting jaws, prominent teeth and thick lips. Their villages are called mottas, groups of four or five huts, built in mountain glens or forests. At the 1901 census the numbers were returned at 4083.

See James W. Breeks, An Account of Primitive Tribes of the Nilgiris (1873); Dr John Shortt, Hill Ranges of Southern India, pt. i. 47-53; Rev. F. Metz, Tribes Inhabiting the Neilgherry Hills (Mangalore, 1864).