Our community members presently spread from Koyangare in Kerala to Mangalore in Karnataka.  Of course now we have traveled outside these places into cities in India and abroad and settled there too.

But before our settlements at present coastal villages of Kerala and Karnataka, which we call our root, it is assumed that we have been traveling in group from northern Kerala towards southern part of Karnataka.  These places were earlier in the State of Madras. Migration might have happened to these places well before four to five hundred years when even name Madras was not in existence. While traveling to north we might have taken root via Kodagu, hill area between Kerala and Karnataka, or intently traveled to Kodagu(Coorg) to settle there itself.  This is evident from the language we speak now.  In the past occurrences of natural isolation resulting from heavy rainfall, dense forests ranges, steep mountains might have isolated us from the mainstream population of Malabar or Coorg or Tulu-Naad. Also for Political and military advantages the Rulers (Rajas) of these areas used to close down certain roads prohibited traveling and which may have led many groups to isolate and travel around wherever they could. We might have been one such groups.

Some of the living system we adopted resembles Kodava (Coorg) life.  In Kodagu (Coorg) disputes are settled in ‘Koota’ similar to our ‘Koota-kalam’ by our ‘Acchammar’.  Coorgies do not perform any of the rituals using ‘vedic mantras’ and also are not recited when a Coorg is given name or marries or dies.  Coorgies talk corgi language in home and study Kannada and English. Their language also considered as a Dravidian language. Coorgi languare is an independent language and shows characteristics that in part connect it closely with Kannada, in part the language of the Malabar coast, especially Malayalam.  Further, Coorg life consists of different cultures. Malayalam and Tulu cultures, Kannada and Mysore culture and Tulu and Kannada cultures all have certain features in common. All three share some common features. Our language and culture therefore might also have sprang from mixture of these three features and due to isolation became a different form. And yet our language was named as Malayalam. Our culture never resembled with Malabar.

While traveling from Malabar to Coorge we may not have penetrated deep into coorg but might have traveled at the periphery of main land Coorg but for the extremity of the place and for the political reasons we could not have settled there for long and turned towards north west via tulu-nad.  However we carried very strongly our spiritual beliefs from south and living under the shadow of very high rich culture of Malabar and Coorg but isolated ourselves to live on ourselves very poorly.  Some rulers  of Tulu-naad might have assisted us to sustain at the place where we found presently with our own land and occupation.

These are the assumption made from various cultures and life exist in front of us.

OUR LIFE

How after these final settlement in places between Koyangare and Mangalore we ourselves were able to administer our lives with new surroundings of strange cultures and with new occupation with other communities there, who might have also been migrants themselves (or not?) is important to note.

After majority of us had chosen to occupy ourselves to fishing on the shores of west coast because we settled by the Arabian Sea shore, we surely disciplined our life.  We built dwelling houses with distinct names for our own houses, now we call them our Taravad. Those days of barter system continued till end of mid 20th century. Our association with other communities was cordial and pleasant. With our warrior like ability, we stood as security guards to other weaker communities around us.  

Our forefathers unmistakably thought about the importance of education for self development. While other communities around us were still struggling to get education, our people initiated themselves to have education without waiting for the government to provide it. 

Our religious thoughts were clearly represented by our Elevan Stanas. While our Stanas remained exclusive to our community members, we also visited local temples regularly.  Irregularity due to lack of finance to hold yearly festivals in our Stanas and absence of deities in our Stanas for daily darshan, our bond with local temples of vediccustoms increased.

‘Acchammar’ were our representatives and they decided or modified our living systems time to time.  Though they were not democratically elected representatives but divinely selected members, their decisions were highly respected and executed. However, their decisions had proper element of democracy. There were regular ‘koota-kala’ which imposed discipline and co-ordination among the society members.  All disputes among members were heard and settled by these ‘koota-kala’ with awards and fines. Never in those period, one had to witness a dispute dragged to judiciary.  This system is in existence for the scrutiny of the customs and traditions even today.

Kotlu Ananda