|
tribesmen who had their homes in these jungles. A good deal of the misery
of the Chenchu-Yenadi group of tribes is ascribable to the absence of
a forest conservation policy in the dark ages after the fall of the Vijayanagar
Empire. Some tribes, such as the Lambadis are the relics of the military
compaigns of Mughal and Mahratta periods of Indian History. Tribes such
as the Savaras, Gonds, Reddis were once very important politically, and
had kingdoms which fell under the attack of powerful enemies.”
Mr.Edgar Thurston writes on the origin of
the Muduvar, a hill tribe, as follows:
“The Muduvars or Muduhars are a tribe of
hill cultivators in Coimbatore, Madura, Malabar, and Travancore..............
“The Muduvars do not believe themselves
to be indigenous to the hills; the legend, handed down from father to
son, is that they originally lived in Madura. Owing to troubles, or a
war in which the Pƒndiyan Rƒja
of the times was engaged, they fled to the hills. When at B†dinƒyakan‡r,
the pregnant women (or, as some say, a pregnant womaŒ
were left behind, and eventually went with the offspring to the Nilgris,
while the bulk of the tribe came to the High Range of North Travancore.
There is supposed to be enmity between these rather vague Nilgiri people
and the Muduvars. The Nilgiri people are said occasionally to visit B†dinƒyakan‡r,
but, if by chance they are met by Muduvars there is no speech between
them, though each is supposed instinctively or intuitively to recognise
the presence of the other. Those that came to the High Range carried their
children up the ghats on their backs, and it was thereupon decided to
name the tribe Maduvar, or back people. According to another tradition,
when they left Madura, they carried with them on their back the image
of the goddess Minƒkshi, and brought it
to N„riamangalam. It is stated by Mr. P.E.Conner
that the Muduvars “rank high in point of precedency among the hill tribes.
They were originally Vellalƒ#s, tradition
representing them as having accompanied some of the Madura princes to
the Travancore hills.” The approximate time of the exodus from Madura
cannot even be guessed by any of the tribe, but it was possibly at the
time........ when the Telugu Nƒickers
|