Kodava people

Kodava
Kodava folk singers
Total population
(approx) 160,000
Regions with significant populations
Kodagu, Bangalore, Mysore
Languages
Koḍava takkï
Religion
Hinduism
Related ethnic groups
Nambiar, Mappilla, Arebhashe, Gowda, Amma, Heggade [1][2]
PersonKoḍavanï
PeopleKoḍavarï
LanguageKoḍava takkï
CountryKoḍagï
Kodagu: home of the Kodavas shown above in the map of Karnataka, India (in orange)

The Kodavas (Codavas or Kodagas) also called Coorgs are an endogamous Dravidian ethnolinguistic group from the region of Kodagu in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, who natively speak the Kodava language.[3][4] [5] Kodavas worship ancestors, nature, and weapons such as swords, bows, arrows, and later guns.[2][3][5]

They are traditionally land-owning agriculturists and patrilineal, with martial customs.[3][5] Originally small landholders, they gained relative prosperity with the advent of coffee cultivation in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.[2][4]

The Kodava tribe forms the single largest caste in the district of Kodagu; they are reportedly over 30% of Kodagu's Hindu population, and play a major role in deciding the political candidates and winners there.[4] The Kodava tribe also forms more than 60 percent of the Kodava-speaking population.[2][4]

Kodavas are the only ones in India permitted to carry firearms without a license. [citation needed]

  1. ^ Thurston, Edgar (16 June 2011). The Madras Presidency with Mysore, Coorg and the Associated States. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-60068-3.
  2. ^ a b c d Richter, G (1870). Manual of Coorg- A Gazetteer of the natural features of the country and the social and political condition of its inhabitants. Mangalore: C Stolz, Basel Mission Book Depository. pp. 110–117. ISBN 9781333863098.
  3. ^ a b c B. D. Ganapathy (1967). Kodavas (Coorgs), their customs and culture. copies available at Kodagu. p. 28. Retrieved 23 August 2011.
  4. ^ a b c d Jeff Neilson; Bill Pritchard (27 March 2009). Value chain struggles: institutions and governance in the plantation districts of South India. Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 174–. ISBN 978-1-4051-7393-3. Retrieved 23 August 2011.
  5. ^ a b c Kumar Suresh Singh; Anthropological Survey of India (2003). People of India. Anthropological Survey of India. p. 751. ISBN 978-81-85938-98-1. Retrieved 23 August 2011.

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