population, principally composed of Zafaranlu Kurds, descendants of tribes settled there by Shah Abbas I. in the 17th century, is estimated at 100,000. About 3000 families are nomads and live in tents. The district produces much grain, 25,000 to 30,000 tons yearly, and contains two towns, Kuchan and Shirvan (pop. 6000), and many villages.
Kuchan, the capital of the district, has suffered much from the effects of earthquakes, notably in 1875, 1894 and 1895. The last earthquake laid the whole town in ruins and caused considerable loss of life. About 8000 of the survivors removed to a site 712 m. E. and there built a new town named Nasseriyeh after Nasr-ud-din Shah, but known better as Kuchan i jadid, i.e. New Kuchan, and about 1000 remained in the ruined city in order to be near their vineyards and gardens. The geographical position of the old town is 37° 8′ N., 58° 25′ E., elevation 4100 ft. The new town has been regularly laid out with broad streets and spacious bazaars, and, situated as it is half-way between Meshed and Askabad on the cart-road connecting those two places, has much trade. Its population is estimated at 10,000. There are telegraph and post offices.
KUCH BEHAR, or Cooch Behar, a native state of India, in Bengal, consisting of a submontane tract, not far from
Darjeeling, entirely surrounded by British territory. Area,
1307 sq. m. Pop. (1901), 566,974; estimated revenue, £140,000.
The state forms a level plain of triangular shape, intersected
by numerous rivers. The greater portion is fertile and well
cultivated, but tracts of jungle are to be seen in the north-east
corner, which abuts upon Assam. The soil is uniform in character
throughout, consisting of a light, friable loam, varying in
depth from 6 in. to 3 ft., superimposed upon a deep bed of sand.
The whole is detritus, washed down by torrents from the neighbouring
Himalayas. The rivers all pass through the state from
north to south, to join the main stream of the Brahmaputra.
Some half-dozen are navigable for small trading boats throughout
the year, and are nowhere fordable; and there are about twenty
minor streams which become navigable only during the rainy
season. The streams have a tendency to cut new channels for
themselves after every annual flood, and they communicate
with one another by cross-country watercourses. Rice is
grown on three-fourths of the cultivated area. Jute and tobacco
are also largely grown for export. The only special industries
are the weaving of a strong silk obtained from worms fed on the
castor-oil plant, and of a coarse jute cloth used for screens
and bedding. The external trade is chiefly in the hands of
Marwari immigrants from Rajputana. Among other improvements
a railway has been constructed, with the assistance of a
loan from the British government. The earthquake of the
12th of June 1897 caused damage to public buildings, roads, &c.,
in the state to the estimated amount of £100,000.
The Koch or Rajbansi, from which the name of the state is derived, are a widely spread tribe, evidently of aboriginal descent, found throughout all northern Bengal, from Purnea district to the Assam valley. They are akin to the Indo-Chinese races of the north-east frontier; but they have now become largely hinduized, especially in their own home, where the appellation “Koch” has come to be used as a term of reproach. Their total number in all India was returned in 1901 as nearly 212 millions.
As in the case of many other small native states, the royal family of Kuch Behar lays claim to a divine origin in order to conceal an impure aboriginal descent. The greatest monarch of the dynasty was Nar Narayan, the son of Visu Singh, who began to reign about 1550. He conquered the whole of Kamrup, built temples in Assam, of which ruins still exist bearing inscriptions with his name, and extended his power southwards over what is now part of the British districts of Rangpur and Purnea. His son, Lakshmi Narayan, who succeeded him in Kuch Behar, became tributary to the Mogul Empire. In 1772 a competitor for the throne, having been driven out of the country by his rivals, applied for assistance to Warren Hastings. A detachment of sepoys was accordingly marched into the state; the Bhutias, whose interference had led to this intervention, were expelled, and forced to sue for peace through the mediation of the lama of Tibet. By the treaty made on this occasion, April 1773, the raja acknowledged subjection to the Company, and made over to it one-half of his annual revenues. In 1863, on the death of the raja, leaving a son and heir only ten months old, a British commissioner was appointed to undertake the direct management of affairs during the minority of the prince, and many important reforms were successfully introduced. The maharaja Sir Nripendra Narayan, G.C.I.E., born in 1862, was educated under British guardianship at Patna and Calcutta, and became hon. lieutenant-colonel of the 6th Bengal Cavalry. In 1897–98 he served in the Tirah campaign on the staff of General Yeatman-Biggs, and received the distinction of a C.B. He was present at the Jubilee in 1887, the Diamond Jubilee of 1897, and King Edward’s Coronation in 1902, and became a well-known figure in London society. In 1878 he married a daughter of Keshub Chunder Sen, the Brahmo leader. His eldest son was educated in England.
The town of Kuch Behar is situated on the river Tursa, and has a railway station. Pop. (1901), 10,458. It contains a college affiliated to the Calcutta University.
KUDU (koodoo), the native name for a large species of African antelope (q.v.), with large corkscrew-like horns in the male, and the body marked with narrow vertical white lines in both sexes. The female is hornless. Strepsiceros capensis (or S. strepsiceros) is the scientific name of the true kudu, which ranges from the Cape to Somaliland; but there is also a much smaller species (S. imberbis) in East and North-East Africa.
Male Kudu.
KUENEN, ABRAHAM (1828–1891), Dutch Protestant theologian, the son of an apothecary, was born on the 16th of September 1828, at Haarlem, North Holland. On his father’s death it became necessary for him to leave school and take a humble place in the business. By the generosity of friends he was educated at the gymnasium at Haarlem and afterwards at the university of Leiden. He studied theology, and won his doctor’s degree by an edition of thirty-four chapters of Genesis from the Arabic version of the Samaritan Pentateuch. In 1853 he became professor extraordinarius of theology at Leiden, and in 1855 full professor. He married a daughter of W.
Muurling, one of the founders of the Gröningen school, which made the first pronounced breach with Calvinistic theology in the Reformed Church of Holland. Kuenen himself soon became one of the main supports of the modern theology, of which J. N. Scholten (1811–1885) and Karel Willem Opzoomer (b. 1821) were the chief founders, and of which Leiden became the headquarters. His first great work, an historico-critical introduction to the Old Testament, Historisch-kritisch onderzoek naar het onstaan en de verzameling van de boeken des Ouden Verbonds (3 vols., 1861–1865; 2nd ed., 1885–1893; German by T. Weber and C. T. Müller, 1885–1894), followed the lines of the
