My take is that Badagas were both the people of plains and of the hill and have always been like that. You can call it a conjecture but based on what I see about Badagas. Of course I am just guessing and have no scientific or scholarly basis for my statement. Now that I am trying to understand the origins of Badagas, my theory will be as below. That is, I was aware that Badagas were much more advanced in culture and civilization (should not misunderstand that hill people are of less culture I am just trying to contrast two different things and hence nothing is inferior here) than normal tribal population.
To start with and to be frank I did not know much about Badaga culture except for the fact that they are unlike general “hill people” that one could see. Having seen your website about Badagas, here are my thoughts on their origin. I visited Nilgiris recently and was starting to wonder about Badagas and Thodas. What we DO NOT know about Badagas is more than what we know about them. IF YOU LOOK AT THE ISSUE AS OF ‘DEFINITIVE MIGRATION’ THEN YOU TRY TO GUESS ABOUT THE DATES BUT WHAT HAPPENS IF WE BELIEVE THAT BADAGAS HAVE ALWAYS BEEN THERE IN THE NILGIRIS MUCH BEFORE OR ALONG WITH TODHAS OR KOTHAS? UNCOMFORTABLE QUESTIONS THAT ARE VERY INTERESTING AND WORTH DIGGING DEEPER INTO.īut given the diversity but the highly commendable unity and uniformity with minor changes in their customs, Badaga Migration has taken place even within the Nilgiris Hills reverently called ‘Naakku Betta’ by the Badagas. I AM SURE THE MYSTERY OF MIGRATION IS FAR FROM OVER. WHEN THERE IS NO DEFINITE EVIDENCE ABOUT THE ORIGIN OF TODHAS OR KOTHAS, HOW CAN WE PRESUME THAT THEY PREDATED BADAGAS AS NATIVES OF THE NILGIRIS? ONLY BASED ON THE NAME ‘BADAGA’ OR ON THE SO CALLED LEGENDS THAT ARE OPEN TO MANY INTERPRETATIONS OR ON THE BASIS OF SIMILARITY OF BADAGA WITH HALIYA /MID KANNADA, CAN WE CONCLUDE THAT BADAGAS MIGRATED FROM SOUTHERN MYSORE. I AM FIRMLY OF THE VIEW THAT “IT IS POSSIBLE THAT BADAGAS HAVE LIVED IN THE NILGIRIS FOR THOUSAND OF YEARS LIKE THE THODAS OR KOTHAS AND MIGRATION THEORY IS AN ATTEMPT BY HISTORIANS AND ANTHROPOLOGISTS TO EXPLAIN AWAY A ‘HISTORICAL PUZZLE’. But what surprises me is the fact that most of these analysis that Badagas came from the north (Mysore area and no further) is based on the name Badaga which means from the north. This is much before Tipu Sultan's time in the late 1700s, the period in which most of the western researchers consider that the migration of Badagas to the Nilgiris took place. B.Balasubramaniam, a highly educated Badaga who has done some extensive research about Badaga origin and the author of “ PAAMÉ ” – THE HISTORY AND CULTURE OF THE BADAGAS OF THE NILGIRIS ' feels that the Badagas migrated from Southern Karnataka, then known as Mysore area, around 1311AD ,about 700 years back during the plundering raid of Malik Kafir.
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