Clarification on ‘MORAY’ is requested.

I received the following email from, obviously, a disappointed girl. Can some learned friends who have intimate knowledge of ‘MORAY’ system, clarify whether there is a BLANKAT ban/bar on any marriage arrangement between Kunday Seemay and Ketti Ooru? Are there any exceptions? Is it just a convention or are there some particular/specific reasons like same ‘kula’ etc

I am aware of ONE Particular marriage between two villages belonging to the SAME OORU in Porangaadu Seemay which the ‘community’ seemed to have accepted.

Please kindly respond – may be we can help a young girl.

Wg Cdr JP

I belong to Kunday seemae and I am in love with a boy from ketti. We love each other sincerely and only after 4months we came to know that we don’t have moray. But I can’t marry anyone other than him, I love him a lot. Now its nearly 2 years since we are in loveCan you please explain why can’t we marry from Kunday Seemay to Ketti. Both are two different semmae, then why is it so?

Emerald Bhojan Hariharan [ebhari@gmail.com] comments :

As far as my knowledge is concerned, irrespective of Seemey, “Kula” or “Kola” (as we called in Badugu) defines one’s Patrilineal bloodline and has the final say in marriages. Every Kola is Exagamous, meaning, one cannot marry within the Kola and has to seek marriages outside the Kola. In all, there are 12 Kolas.

For example, Jakkanare in Porangadu Seemey and most villages in Mercunadu seemey belong to Manikka Kola. So, marriage between Jakkanare & Nundhala/Bakola/Mudugula is not allowed, although they are in different Seemey. At the same time, Nattaru of a different Kola may be living within Jakkanare itself, sometimes in the same Thara (Street), but that marriage is allowed since they trace their ancestry to different Kola.It is imperative to check the Kola to which one belongs and cross check if the other party belongs to the same kola or to a different Kola.

God willing, I will come up with a web based solution to ascertain one’s Kola and Moray at the earliest. Cheers!

Hello Hari, Nice to hear from you – thanks for the imputs.

My biggest crib is that there are many of us who are concerned about our community issues like morey, script etc but are not able to work together and find common solutions that are acceptable to most if not all.

Another example is that of Badaga Origin. Like, I am totally convinced that MOST Badagas are original inhabitants/aborgines [as Senthil also keeps writing] of the Nilgiri hills and NOT ALL are MIGRANTS from Mysore as many of us are ‘sort’ of forced to believe.

With some concerted and consistant efforts, we can bring changes in our community. Why wait for others when we can be the ‘changes’ ourselves?

Wg Cdr JP