Koraga: A Dravidian Tribal Community
Dr. M. Selvadurai
Senior Resource Person
Central Institute of Classical Tamil
Kamarajar Salai, Chennai-05
Email: selva_ling@rediffmail.com
1. Koraga Tribe
The Koragas are perhaps the poorest among the scheduled tribes in Karnataka and Kerala. Koraga is an aboriginal tribe at Dakshina Kannada and Udupi Districts in Karnataka. Though the Koragas are tribal’s, they are regarded as ceremonially impure and unclean in the local Hindu Society and were considered untouchables by the main stream of social group. The Koragas are the most backward among the tribes of Karnataka State in every respect. A great majority of them lead on hard life and good proportion of they are engaged in their traditional occupations like basket making.
Koragas are, a very quiet and inoffensive race, small and slight, the men seldom exceeding five feet six inches, black skinned, thick lipped, noses broad and flat, high-check bones and sloping foreheads, and with bushy rough hairs. Their principal occupation was basket making and food gathering. At present, they are engaged with many other occupations. Most of them are labourers.
According to the 2001 Census, the total population of the Koraga tribe is 11,566. The District and Taluk wise population is as follows:
Sl.No | District / Taluk | No. of families | Male | Female | Total |
A. | Dakshina Kannada | ||||
1. | Bantwal | 170 | 296 | 267 | 563 |
2. | Belthangadi | 98 | 152 | 136 | 288 |
3. | Mangalore | 716 | 1372 | 1419 | 2791 |
4. | Sullia | 47 | 77 | 74 | 151 |
5. | Puttur | 104 | 170 | 174 | 344 |
Total | 1135 | 2067 | 2070 | 4137 | |
B. | Udupi | ||||
1. | Udupi | 959 | 1975 | 1875 | 3850 |
2. | Karkala | 354 | 666 | 678 | 1344 |
3. | Kundapura | 607 | 1135 | 1100 | 2235 |
Total | 1920 | 3776 | 3653 | 7429 | |
Grand total | 3055 | 5843 | 5723 | 11566 | |
At present, the Koraga Population is about 21,000.
In the Kerala State Koragas are inhabitations of the Cannanore district. They are seen at Hosabettu Mudabidri. Puttur, Uppinangadi, Narumpadi. [Karadukka village] Manieswara, Mangalapalli of the Kasargod District.
They have been worshippers of spirits. They live in hamlets comparable to those of the present in the Nilgiri hills. These thatched huts have only one small entrance. Their one of the sub-sections called Soppu Koraga who was not, formerly, wearing clothes. But were tying some leaves round their waist.
2. Etymology of the label ‘Koraga’
‘Kora’ the first part of their name refers to the sun and the name may have originated from their conventional worship of the sun. There is a possibility that their name is a corruption of Koruvar which in Tulu means the people of the hills.
3. Food pattern – Traditional
They are non-vegetarians and once those were the ones who use to eat even carcass for their diet. However, now-a-days the practice is outdated among many Koragas.
4. Origin of Koragas
Regarding the origin of the Koragas there are, a few legends. One such legend describes them as the issue of Brahmin woman by a ṡūdra on account of the difference in the social status of their parents. The children were treated with contempt. Another legend connects the origin of the Koragas to Chiot Hubushika [Habaṡhika] who invaded Tulu Nadu and drove out Mayura-varma the founder of the Kadamba Dynasty and Empire. The army of Habashika is also claimed to have defeated the Anagaravarma son of Viravarma of Manjeshwara. Later, Habashika and his followers were defeated and driven out by Lokaditya Raya, son of Mauryavarma of Gokarna and Brahmins were brought into zone to replace the Koragas,
A third legend states that Habashika [King of the Chandalas] consented to marry Kanayathi the daughter of Lokaditya - a Kadamba Princes and a girl of the Varma family. The legend states obscurely that at the marriage ceremony Habashika and his party were killed by Lokaditya soldiers and his followers driven out to the forest. The Koragas are reported to have surrendered on the assurance that they would be looked after and maintained by them but were neglected.
5. Socio-Cultural life
Once upon a time the Koragas were the ruling tribe of some parts of Dakshina Kannada District and Western Ghats region of the Karnataka State. It is also said that the Koragas were enslaved around 6th A.D. Since then, the Koragas were slave labourers and women were sent to forests. The District Gazetteer of Dakshina Kannada reveals that till the beginnings of the 20th century, the Koragas were treated as slave labourers, in weekly fairs and yearly fairs in the district. Koragas have their highly distinct and unique folk culture and language. Their language is Koraga and undoubtedly grouped as Dravidian. The Koraga language has no script, but today a few literates have mostly borrowed its linguistic resources from Kannada. Thus, the Koragas are bilinguals and multilinguals too.
The multilingual Koragas are living in Kundapura and Karkala taluks speak Koraga, Kannada and Tulu, whereas the other Koragas living in Udupi and Mangalore taluks speak Koraga and Tulu. The ethnic and anthropometrical features reveal that the Koragas are aboriginal Dravidian tribe. They are short to medium stature with curly hair and very distinct eyes and lips which would not allow them to be mistaken. The Koragas belong to matriarchal family system and they were worshipping major Hindu deities along with their specific type of bhūta worship. They perform simple ceremonies during death, puberty and marriage.
Their God is called Koraga Thaniya, which is the god of Koragas. In every Koraga colony we can find small stones, a few plants or trees representing different cults. It is evident from the foregoing analysis that the Koragas are leading a hard life and they have not been removed from the clutches of superstitious beliefs and practices.
6. Name of sub-group
Several studies report the existence of many sub-groups among the Koragas. However, we could observe only 6 groups. They are Onti Koragas, Soppu Koragas, Mudu Koraga, Tappu Koraga, Dadi/kada Koraga, Vastra/Kuntu Koraga and Kappada Koraga.
7. Family type
The Koraga family reveals that like any where else, joint family system is disappearing among the Koragas. Traditional joint families of the Koragas were not as large as in the main stream of Indian society. Nearly two-third of the sample respondents live in nuclear families and only about a third live in joint families.
8. Health
Good health is crucial for socio-economic development of the people. Health is defined as “complete physical and mental fitness of an individual. But health is one of the serious problems among the Koragas. Some of them are suffering from fatal diseases. Frequently they are affected by T.B., fever, typhoid, cold, skin diseases etc. The other problems reported were leprosy, malaria, jaundice, typhoid, heart pain, back pain, stomach pain etc.
9. Ajal
The Koragas are expected to perform “ajal” duties. In other words, a particular area is assigned to a group of families and they are expected to play a key role in certain occasions like village festivals, death ceremonies social and religious functions.
The Koraga men beat drums and play flute during deaths and other socio-religious functions. They also announce the dates of festivals, village functions etc. for performing these duties. They enjoy certain special privileges like collecting leftover food and old clothes. In addition, the Koragas are allowed to collect leftover food from the plantain leaves. The leftover food, clothes and some other used household articles are usually collected by women. But keeping this in mind they were asked to state the things that they collect from ajal area. At present the habit of ajal and collection of leftover food has been undergoing transition. The younger generations are having greater disagreement with their elders for such habits.
10. Economic activities and household income
In recent days, many of the Koraga households have been allotted free house sites and house. In the backyard and front space grow different trees like coconut, banana, cashew nut and others. Due to Inadequate of water facilities they qultinate (the limited corps).
11. The Koraga language
Koraga is a tribal language spoken mainly in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi Districts of Karnataka State and Kasaragod District of Kerala State. Koraga language is divided into a number of distinct dialects, which are separated from one another by both geographical and social factors. According to early research works (Bhat, 1971), there are four major dialects in Koraga. They are, i) Onti spoken in Udupi, ii) Tappu spoken in Hebri, iii) Mudu spoken in Kundapura and iv) Ande, spoken in Mangalore. Most of the Koragas are bilinguals, the other language being Tulu or Kannada. The speakers of the third dialect (i.e., Mudu Koraga) mentioned above, know Kannada in addition to their mother-tongue. But Tappu Koragas are multilinguals. They speak both Tulu and Kannada other than their mother - tongue.
12. Marriage
The marriage systems in Koraga are simple but convincingly matching with the common core of the Hindu marriage methods. Here, lexical items related to the marriage ceremony have been taken. Matrimonial allied will be made as according to the cross-matrimonial relations allowed in their community. Usual marriage system is simple and arranged marriages are common but no such rule within the community.
For the concept ‘marriage we find four forms birdi ‘marriage’, pudarata ‘marriage’ madme ‘marriage’, mangila ‘marriage’ and out of which the first and second forms do not have cognates in other Dravidian languages, third one partly matches with the Kannada form maduwe ‘marriage’. The fourth form maṅgila is an adapted Sanskrit word (maṅgaḷa).The term dibbaṇa ‘the marriage procession’ is identical with the Kannada and Tulu terms with same meaning.
13. Ritualistic items – Woman and Marriage –birth and death
Here the lexical items of ritualistic notion related to the woman, puberty, marriage, pregnancy etc, are given. The language show the ritualistic vocabulary related many to major events similar to that of main stream Hindu society.
Except the forms lagina and murta, all other forms are native words of Koraga. The form bāyke is well relatable to the Kannada form bayake ‘longing’. Even in Kannada too it is having ritualistic extension as in the Koraga language. However the Koraga language has lost the general counterpart of the meaning. Remaining other forms listed above is native Koraga words and not borrowings; however, lack the relatable cognates.
14. Gods
Even though the Koraga community is a primitive tribe, which is associated with the spirit worship we find that the ethnic group hold distinction between holy spirits and evil spirits. And their association with the trends other than bhūta worship is quite evident to the fact that those people were associated with the major trends in the Hindu society from the very beginning. This is a linguistic evidence as reflected in their lexicon for the fact which is reflected in their legendary King Habashika who fought with the Kadamba dynasty of Karnataka and defeated the army of Kadambas twice and later who got killed tyranneously by the Dynasty.
How far their relation with Kadamba dynasty can be proved with this is a difficult question. However, their co-existence with the dominant society of plain land can be well established with this at least from the period of Kadambas.
15. Demons - holy
Here we find several names of spirits found exclusively in the Koraga community which are worshibed and the names of the permanently built places for worship, like temples which do not have cognates in Kannada, Tamil, and Tulu.
CONCLUSION
The Present paper concludes the format and results of the research as presented in the dissertation. General introduction to the present paper study involves broader ground chosen for the paper which defines most fundamentals of the research work undertaken.
Brief introduction to the Koraga tribe involves facts like their regional affiliation, population, possible etymology of the term Koraga, their appearance (traditional), their traditional food pattern, ethnic historicity and origin of the tribe, traditional occupations, socio-cultural life and status, sub groups of the tribe, family type, health and alcoholism, their ‘ajal’ duties and their relation with main stream society, and their relative status with other tribes in the zone, house hold income, and the sub varieties in the Koraga language.
Biblogrphy
1. Ayyappan. 1948. “Report on the Socio-Economic Condition of the Aboriginal Tribes” of the Madras Presidency.
2. Bhatt, S.C.& Bharagava, G.K. 2005. “Land and People of India States and Union Territories in 36 volumes, Karnataka – Volume 13
3. Hemananda,B.P.& M. Selvadurai. 2004. Comparison of Ethic identity between Koraga and Narikorawas UGC –ASIHSS National Seminar CAS in Linguistics Annamalai University Annamalai nagar.
4. Purushothama Bilimale, 1993. “Koragara Sunkrithi -A cultural study, Deemed College, Pone. |
5. Ramakrishna T. Shetty 1978. ‘Koraga Gammar. Unpublished Ph.D Thesis PoonaUniversity, Poona |
6. Siva Kumar, M. 1994. “An Ethno linguistics Study of Nilgri Tribes” ICSSR Project CAS in Linguistics, Annamalai University. |
7. Srinivasa Varma,G. 1978. “Kurumba Kannada” ( Pudukkottai Kurumba Dialect) CAS in Linguistics Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar. |
Unknown Said,
ur article is very informative sir, i wanted to visit one of their settlements,like a backward village near mangalore, it would be very helpful if u could let me know about such place....ty
Posted on 11 February 2017 at 21:21
Unknown Said,
i would like to meet one such family or person from this tribe for a documentary. Could you please suggest any or tell where can we meet such population in mangalore
Posted on 26 March 2018 at 22:40
Unknown Said,
Is there dress atire
Posted on 6 October 2018 at 17:36