The initial ‘research’ done by the westerners, in fact a large number of them being Italian/German missionaries whose ‘mission’ was to convert the hill tribes to Christianity (later joined by British officials and some anthropologists) wrongly clubbed all Badaga speaking people together and wrongly assumed that Badagas to be a community who migrated from the plains of Mysore (Karnataka). It was taken for granted that anyone speaking Badaga language ( also known as Badugu/Badagu) was considered a Badaga. The question, though appears to be a simple and straight forward one, is more complex than initially assumed. Leaving aside the topic of the original Badagas, would like to know what you plan to achieve through further separate of these 3 groups – do you want the Odaiyas and Thoraiyas to stop calling themselves Badagas and continue to maintain the rigidity of exclusion for the next 100 centuries?Įither way in the spirit of seekers of the truth, let us hire/ engage scientists who can give us an accurate view of the past, starting with genetic and DNA matching to identify the truth about the origins of all these groups.įirst of all, both the people and the language are called Badaga. If I am right, there are less than 10-15 Thoraiya hattis which itself makes the claim that they were servants to Badagas of 274 hattis require more investigation. These could only be because –Ī) they were living in the mountains before the Badagas but were subjugatedī) they came after the Badagas, therefore had no claims of their own and had to be subservient to themĬ) for reasons unknown, a few people were set aside and made servants within the Badagas themselves.
On the Thoraiyas- there could be several possible reasons why they have been made the servants of the Badagas. The Odaiyas seem closer to the royal family of Mysore by name (Odaiya/ Wodeya) and further research into this is definitely merited.
On the topic of Odaiyas and Thoriyas, am not clear what you would like to prove- that they should no longer be included as Badagas, though the exact same customs, language and culture is followed for centuries as far as we can remember? Due respect must be paid to the in-depth research of Prof Paul Hocking, without casting aside all that he has studied. We have genetics, anthropology and social sciences which will be able to provide a far more accurate picture than the lore of the Badaga forefathers- much of it lost in transmission from one generation to another.
Even to this day a Badaga can easily understand Kannada because of the major similarities between the two. I have read most of your articles on this website which insist that Badagas have not migrated from the plains towards Mysore but the proximity of the language to Kannada cannot be denied in spite of centuries of isolation. Sir, with the evolution of science in every field, this is the right time to further explore the truth about the origin of the Badagas. Sudha Arjun has sent her strong views which I feel deserve a careful study. Recently I had posted an article under the tiltle “ Who are BADAGAS?” (see below the text high lighted in blue) and wondered whether Odayas and Thoraiyas can be included as Badagas.