Badagas of the Blue Mountains

Let us learn Badaga

” Ollenge iddiya ? – How are you ?”

‘Suddi saddha ella olliththa ? – (Roughly) ‘ How is everything ? ‘

1. Are you a Badaga ? – Nee ondu Badagana?

2. Yes, I am a Badaga – Ha, Na ondu Badaga

3. What is your name ? – Ninna hesaru aena ?

4. My name is Bhoja – Enna hesaru Bhoja

5. Which is your village ? – Ninna Hatti edu ?

[5a. Amme / Thamma, nee ai hatti ? – Girl/ Boy, which is your village?]

6. My village is Bearhatti – Enna Hatti bandu Bearhatti

7. Whose son/daughter are you ? – Nee dara maathi / hennu ?

8. I am Mela thara (top street) Joghi Gowder’s son / daughter – Na Mela thara Joghi gowdaru maathi / hennu

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Click to see 

THE ‘NEW‘

WONDERFUL WORLD OF BADAGAS

Baarivi, Nodivi, Odhivi & Oridivi ! [Come, See, Read and Listen !]

To play some nice Badaga music with piano and drums, go -> HERE

Thontai Gowder Samraj writes :

The misconceptions about the origin of the Badugas is really hurting me. We are known as Baduguru by all the other indigenous communities who admire us for our progress and cultural tapestry that we share with them.

Evidences are plenty to show that we are indigenous to the Nilgiris. Deve sole’ (Sacred Groves) are an important aspect of our culture. Who will share their deities and festivals with us if we have come from elsewhere? Who will participate in our rituals if we are not part of this land? We need to reinforce our origin with as much cultural evidence to reverse the misconception that we have migrated from Mysore.

This is basically because of the written evidences created by researchers of Nilgiris.

I was pleasantly surprised when his ‘student’ Jenus [now at Kotagiri] called up to say that Prof.Frank would like to meet me. Meet, we did, a couple of days back at our residence [Rao Bahadur Ari Gowder bungalow -‘Panorama’] in Mount Pleasant, Coonoor. It was indeed a pleasant and educative interaction. More about what we discussed on Akka Bakka and other issues later…

Read the complete story here

Surprised at the question?

They are an unique community belonging to one of the original and indigenous tribes – I repeat original and NOT migrated from Mysore area – living in the Nilgiris, a mountainous region in the Southern India with the famous hill station Ooty being its capital.

The original tribes of the Nilgiris, by the way, are Badagas, Todas, Kothas and Kurumas. They have been living in these hills for, for want of a better word, thousands of years. The origin of none of these tribes have been established conclusively. The WHITE lie that Badagas have migrated from Mysore plains deserves to be discarded into the [historical] dust bin. Though, unfortunately, many self appointed ‘native and foreign’ anthropologists and historians seem to believe in this ‘word of mouth’ distortion and blissfully spread this disinformation.

The Badagas  form the largest tribe in the Nilgiris and speak an unique language called ‘BADAGA or BADAGU‘. Again, the disinformation that Badaga is a dialect of Kannada [halia or old Kannada] only shows the disinclination of these so called ‘researchers’ to change their [deformed mental] mind set. Badaga is a rich and separate language with the only minus point of not having an unique script of its own.

There are many sub groups among the Badagas, the main ones being, Gowdas, Thorias and Odeyas and usually they do not marry from one group to another.

There are about 400 + villages [called hattis] belonging to these Badagas and they are spread around the beautiful Blue Mountains, fondly called ‘Nakku Betta’ by Badagas.

Though they form about 80 % of the population of the Badagas, the Gowdas are NOT the only ones referred as Badagas.

Clear now ?

BE PROUD TO BE A BADAGA.

A couple of days back I received the following email  from David McCreedy :…..

……. Don’t touch me there! – Enna allie mutta beda! …...என்ன அல்லி முட்ட பேட!

Read the complete story here…

The more one digs into the ‘history and origin’ of Badagas, there are quite a few interesting and informative episodes. One such incident is when Mahatma Gandhiji spoke to and about Badagas during his historic visit to the Nilgiris in 1934 when he had come to this hill station – our Nakku Betta must have been really beautiful in those days – and stayed at ‘Ram Ashram’ which became Amirthanjan Guest House later [now a private property] Mount Pleasant, Coonoor [ next to Rao Bahadur HB Ari Gowder’s Bungalow ‘Panorama’ which came up in 1948].

Gandhiji in Coonoor 1934

Gandhiji in Coonoor 1934

[It is surprising that still many, including Badagas, are not able to accept the fact that Badagas are an original tribe of the Nilgiris]

Badaga Ringtone for your phone.

Ms.Anushya Padmanabhan writes ;

I am from Ooty and I have been thru your portal on our culture you aer doing a great job. Now I need a favour from you, there is a road in Chennai West Mambalam named after great Ari gowder called arya gowda road… many people have mentioned that it’s named after him. 

However when I have posted it in Face book  few baduga friends needed proof. I dont know how to prove this as you have gathered many info on him, is it possible to get some information on this?

Thank you Anushya for your comments. Yes the road in front of Mambalam Railway Station is indeed named after Rao Bahadur Ari Gowder though the name is misspelt as ‘Arya Gowda’. See below as well as the page “All About Ari Gowder”. I have most of the land documents with me – Wg Cdr JP

From the book ” A BADAGA – ENGLISH DICTIONARY ” by Prof.Paul Hockings and Christiane Pilot-Raichoor

Rao Bahadur H.B.Ari Gowder, the first Badaga graduate, first Badaga M.L.C & M.L.A for a long time who had brought many reforms in/to Badaga Community including ‘prohibition’ (no alcohol – kudi) to Nilgiris in British days itself. Ari Gowder lead the Indian contigent (yes, “INDIAN CONTIGENT) to World Scouts Jumboree held in Europe in the 1930s.Being a great philanthrophist he had done a lot for the betterment of Badagas. He was the one who established Nilgiri Co-Op Marketting Society at Ooty, to save the small farmers-especially Badagas- from the exploits of middlemen & traders at Mandis in Mettupalayam. He was the President of NCMS for more than 30 years, till his death and NCMS was considered one of the best co-op societies in India during his days. His statue has been erected in the NCMS compound in appreciation of his great work. He was the Nakku Betta leader till his death after his father Rao Bahadur Bellie Gowder. In fact they were the ‘uncrowned kings’ of Nakku Betta for about 80 years continuously.

Since he donated the land, the road in front of Mambalam Railway Station in Chennai (Madras) is named after him (known as Arya Gowder Street). In fact Rao Bahadur Ari Gowder  had bought about 1.13 acres in that area [including the road now] in 1930 and about 80 cents were sold through Appaswamy realtor later.

Copy cats don’t care for copyright !
You sweat, struggle, lose sleep and then settle on a post, add an image and put it out on your website or blog with prominent display that the content is copyright and all rights reserved.

But some smart alec ‘COPYCAT‘ could not careless.

You are mortified to see your ‘baby’ appearing in the ruthless web world as somebody else’s.