Category Archives: badaga

It is about five years since the websites on BADAGA, both people and language, is started and maintained by me with the sole [rather soul] purpose of gathering and giving out the correct information about our …unique history, origin, culture, customs, rituals, language and lifestyle!

I am really very happy that the slogan I coined “Proud to be Badaga” gets reflected in many Badaga websites/weblogs and of Badaga groups in social interfaces like Facebook etc.

More than anything else, what is so heartening is the fact that most of the visitors [there are more than 178,000] are youngsters from all over the world and the double ‘damakka’ is that many are repeat visitors.

Needless to add, the motivation and encouragement comes when I receive email comments with words of praise. Given below are a couple of them received recently

WELCOME TO THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF BADAGAS – Baarivi, Nodivi, Oridivi & Odhivi! [Come, See, Listen and Read!] பாரிவி, நோடிவி, ஓதிவி & ஓரிடிவி

Maanasi.R.Sridhar writes :

Sir, firstly congratulations on putting together such an insightful and organized website about the Badaga community. Your work has definitely enriched my knowledge of the finer nuances of our culture.

As I was going through your work , I was pleasantly surprised to come cross a mention of my grandfather A. Dharmalingam ,in your ‘first badaga’ category. However , I felt just the mere mention of his name didn’t do justice to his identity. So, I felt it was my duty to provide the following information. Hope you will find it useful for your website. Thank you very much! First Badaga Journalist – ANDI GOWDER DHARMALINGAM ( Kanerimukku Village) Married to N.Thangamma from Dhimhatty He was a reporter for the ‘Madras Mail’ and later for ‘The Hindu’ from the late 1940’s until 1973. After his retirement from ‘The Hindu’, he continued to work as a journalist for the news agency, UNI (United News of India) till his death.

During his illustrious career he rubbed shoulders with personalities such as K.Kamaraj and M.Bhaktavatsalam (former Chief Minister of the State).He also had the privilege of meeting and interacting with leaders of colonial India like Lord Monutbatten and also our first Prime Minister Nehru and Indira Gandhi. Through such interesting anecdotes from his life, his legacy as a journalist still lives on, inspiring generations of writers in our family.

Thank you very much Maanasi Sridhar, for your words of encouragement on this website. On ‘First Badaga’, this is preciously the type of feed back I was hoping for from relatives and friends, to give greater details about those great “First” Badagas, who have done our community proud by their deeds and words. I am aware that your grandfather Dharmalingam was also closely associated with Rao Bahadur Ari Gowder.

Can you send a photo of your grandfather for publication.

I can see from your ‘words’ that you are also very good with writing. Surely, it runs in the family. Thanks once again.

Wg Cdr JP

CONTINUE reading………..

Narmu  writes : “I am new to this site. I am very proud to be a Badaga girl. Our people are very loving, caring and are with humanity to a great extent except when it comes to inter caste marriage. They even accept when our boy marries a non-Badaga girl, but they really don’t accept when our girl marries with a non-Badaga boy. My view is that the parents ego plays a vital role. In today’s trends both the men and women are matured enough to choose their spouse. Any one who comes across this post, dont mistake me, its just my views”.

(Please note:  This website encourages all shades of opinions from viewers. You may agree or NOT agree with the views of some  but  harsh comments/ posts will not be approved/published. Editing or deletion of comments is at the discretion of the author/editor- Wg Cdr JP)

This topic, in my opinion, needs our urgent attention. There is plenty of truth in what Narmu says. Do we, especially the elders in the community, need to change our mind set? Is it not time to change with the ‘changing times’?? – Wg Cdr JP

I have written about many talented Badagas living far away from their native place in the Nilgiris. While most of them have crossed the ‘seven seas’ due to better opportunities or job requirements, there are quite a few ‘businessmen’ also.

Some of the spouses, mainly from the fairer gender, have  chosen to ‘DO SOMETHING  ABOUT THE TALENTS’ they have been bestowed with instead of merely remaining as ‘house wives’. Even in the face of stiff competition and alien atmosphere, they have carved a place for themselves.

One such lady is Mrs.Vinitha Rajkumar, daughter of Dr.KM Raju & [late] Meneka [Kerada] and wife of Dr.Rajkumar from Naihatti, living in UK. of course, I am proud to record the fact that she is my niece, too. She is running a Bharatanatyam dance school called “RHYTHM INDIA SCHOOL OF DANCE, PLYMOUTH, UK“

Vinitha, is also, invited to many school/social gatherings to speak about INDIA !

Mrs.Vinitha Rajkumar, welcomes all to her website http://rhythmindia.wordpress.com

 Mrs Vinitha Rajkumar  with daughter Natasha

 Her website is http://rhythmindia.wordpress.com

Vinitha, you make us all very proud.

After receiving a couple of requests about ‘looking for a bride..’, the page -> ‘ Matrimony ‘  <- is re-added now.

This is being done as a FREE social service focused on Badagas ONLY.

No strings attached and NO guarantee about the authenticity of the details provided by the individuals.

One of the complaints I hear from our friends visiting  badaga.in is that it takes ages to fully display all the contents. This is because, there are many multimedia posts like songs, pictures, animations etc.To overcome this drawback I have developed another set of websites  that can load faster. Like for example, what you see in the ‘home’ page of this site can be seen with alot of animation in badaga.co

The most popular page ‘BADAGA SONGS ON THE WEB’ is made into a separate website “Badaga Songs on the web”where you can listen to ‘Badaga Music’ without leaving the page.

A partial list of new weblogs are

Badaga Wedding in pictures

Badagas- General

Badaga Songs on the WEB

Badaga Rare Photos

Badagas who made a difference

Badaga Jewellery

Badaga recipes…..

Badaga Funeral Rites

Badaga Songs

Hethay Amma History

Badaga Language

Badaga Villages

Have you visited www.badaga.name?

In this website,  www.badaga.co , you can ‘see and hear’ a lot more ‘media’ as javascript is enabled.

WELCOME TO THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF BADAGAS

 Baarivi, Nodivi, Oridivi & Odhivi!

[Come, See, Listen and Read!]

பாரிவி, நோடிவி, ஓதிவி & ஓரிடிவி

copyright©Bellie Jayaprakash 

Badagas had [have] their own calendar based , probably on lunar observations.  Being involved in farming [agriculture] totally, their activities were centered around this unique calendar. I have given more details here.

Click on the link below to hear all the Badaga months being mentioned in this foot tapping dance number. Great lyrics and great music !

You can also see details about Badaga Calendar here or here

I have added a page titled ‘Do You?‘ where you can give your thought or  feeling  …… a free expression.   Please keep it short and do not be offensive. Click here and….Over to you.

Here is the FIRST ‘do you’ from Sofiajoghee from Singapore

Topic:  Praying Hettai Amma

I have no criticism on any religion or praying methods. Th only aim I think is to merge with our soul creator. So, I learnt a few techniques that would lead to the attainment of realization, healing and Samadhi if followed with discipline.

When I see we say we follow Hindu culture, however, our community is completely lacking in the growth in these areas except for the stories of Hettai Amma Eera Masi, who I was told vanished into the space when she found Iyya was found as a spirit after he was dead.

I am not sure how far my understanding of the story is true, because I have heard many versions of this stories from many people. So, I believe, she existed and was a great being. We have taken principles of her life to be followed in our life as well.

But end of the day, we need to reach a point which will lead us to eternity, and methods that can lead us to our creator. Do we have any such methods of prayers?

Even though Hettai Amma is a  mother godess (we believe so), we don’t allow women who try keeping the house clean over the hettai amman festival time to enter the temple. why are all these still in place.

If we understand the true value soul and the purpose of it, we shouldn’t have such practices, but strive towards one goal, because soul is always in its purest form. It is the intention of any person that needs to be pure when they pray, and not based on any division on color, sex, caste or creed.

Does our prayer practice have any such development helps? Kindly let me know if you have any pointers.

If not, don’t you too feel there is something we lack and its time for us to learn. Since we don’t have such learnings, many are changing converting their religion where their souls are motivated. nothing to blame, but every time soul is in search to reach Shiva.  So, how to teach such things to all?

JP adds -I agree with Sofiajoghee. I am a staunch believer of Hethai Amma and written extensively on Hethai Amma History and Hethai Habba in this website as separate pages. It is still a mystery to me why we do not ‘allow’ women to enter the Hethai Temples at Beragani and Pedhuva hattis all the time and on a regular basis. Yes, we all consider that Hethai Amma, as the name indicates, is our Goddess and deity in the FEMALE FORM like other Goddesses, Parvathi, Sarasvathi, Lakshmi, Kali or Durga. But when it comes to certain rituals and entry to Hethai Temples…it is a big NO NO. Are we following something blindly without any rhym or reason? Do we need to change our mindset? Should FAITH and religion be imprisoned to gender bias??