GUWAHATI, Dec 14 - The All Assam Koch Students� Union (AAKSU) today claimed that the Bodos and the Kacharis are of Koch origin, contrary to the claims of the World Bodo Historical Society.
In a statement here today, AAKSU general secretary Kamal Narayan Koch said that the World Bodo Historical Society has claimed that Koch kings Biswa Singha, Naranarayana and ace military general Chilarai were not Koch, but Mech.
But, contrary to the above claim of the Bodo World Historical Society, historical documents prove that the Bodos and the Mech-Kacharis, in fact, belong to the Koch genus. Even the Bodo word �Kachari� means the sons of the Koches.
Moreover, �Arui� is the common patronymic in the Kachari speech, as has been noted by Gait in his census report. The Kacharis have totemistic clan, which suggests � Musa-Arui>Musahari, that is � son of tiger, and so on. This also proves that the Koch-Arui are the sons of the Koches, said Kamal Narayan Koch referring to Andersons � The Collection of Kochari Folk Tales Rhymes 1895; iv).
HH Risley, in his The Tribe and Caste of Bengal (Vol-I; Page No.140; 1891) has stated that the Bodos are a sub-tribe of the Kochh Tribe in the Northern and the Eastern Bengal. Dr Latham, referring to Hunter�s Statistical Account of Bengal (Vol-10:350-351), said, �The Koches, Dhimals, Garos etc are a part of the family and the Koch is the name by which all these tribes were originally called,� said the AAKSU general secretary.
