Rajbongshi people

The Rajbongshi people, also known as Rajbongshis, are indigenous people in Assam. They are spread mainly in the lower part of the Brahmaputra Valley and parts of Bengal, Bihar, Nepal, Meghalaya and Bangladesh. Though these people are today identified as Koch Rajbongshis, it is believed that the Kochs and Rajbongshis sprang from two entirely different sources, the Kochs being of Mongoloid origin, while the Rajbansis are a Dravidian tribe. The Rajbongshis probably owned the name long before the Koch kings rose to power. At later stages, the two communities intermixed and came to be known as Koch Rajbongshis. Even as later as 1901, the Bengal Census Report identified the two communities separately, mentioning population of Kochs as 222,000 and that of Rajbansis (Rajbongshis) as 120,000.