Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 6.djvu/248

POROJA of a Sanskrit term signifying a subject, and it is understood as such by the people themselves, who use it in contradistinction to a free hill-man. 'Formerly,' says a tradition that runs through the whole tribe, 'Rājas and Parjās were brothers, but the Rājas took to riding horses (or, as the Barenja Parjās put it, sitting still) and we became carriers of burdens and Parjās.' It is quite certain, in fact, that the term Parjā is not a tribal denomination, but a class denomination, and it may be fitly rendered by the familiar epithet of ryot (cultivator). I have laid stress on this, because all native officials, and every one that has written about the country (with the above exception), always talk of the term Parjā as if it signified a caste. There is no doubt, however, that by far the greater number of these Parjās are akin to the Khonds of the Ganjam Māliahs. They are thrifty, hard-working cultivators, undisturbed by the intestine broils which their cousins in the north engage in, and they bear in their breasts an inalienable reverence for their soil, the value of which they are rapidly becoming acquainted with. The Parjā bhūmi (land) is contained almost entirely in the upper level. Parts to the south held under Pāchipenta and Mādugulu (Mādgole) are not Parjā bhūmi, nor, indeed, are some villages to the north in the possession of the Khonds. Their ancient rights to these lands are acknowledged by colonists from among the Aryans, and, when a dispute arises concerning the boundaries of a field possessed by recent arrivals, a Parjā is usually called in to point out the ancient land-marks." The name Poroja seems to be derived from the Oriya, Po, son, and Rāja, i.e., sons of Rājas. There is a tradition that, at the time when the Rājas of Jeypore rose into prominence at Nandapur, the country was occupied by a number of tribes, who, in return for the protection