31 Facts About Kodavas

Kodava people or Kodavas are an ethno-linguistic group from the region of Kodagu in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, who natively speak the Kodava language.

For centuries, the Kodavas have lived in Kodagu cultivating paddy fields, maintaining cattle herds and coffee plantations, and carrying arms during war.

Kodavas had 11 sons, the eldest among them was Devakantha who later succeeded him as Raja.

Kodavas'storians agree that the Kodavas have lived in Kodagu for over a thousand years, hence they are the earliest agriculturists and probably the oldest settled inhabitants of the area.

Kodava woman is called Kodavathi Kodavas have distinctive dresses, the men wearing wraparound robes called the Kupya, and the women with a distinctive style of wearing the sari.

Related searches

Kodavas enjoyed equal status with the Nairs, Bunts, Vokkaligas and Vellalas in the Hindu caste system.

Kodavas began to celebrate a few Hindu festivals such as Ugadi, Ayudha Puja and Mahashivaratri under the Haleri Rajas.

However Kodavas traditionally celebrate the following three main festivals peculiar to Kodagu alone - Kail Podh, Kaveri Changrandi and Puthari.

Kodavas have a local trinity comprising the Kuladevi Kaveri, Maguru Igguthappa and Guru Karana .

Some main shrines of the Kodavas are the temples of Talakaveri, Bhagamandala, Padi Igguthappa, Peggala, Kakot Parambu and Bythoor.

The folk songs of the Kodavas speak of the temple deities having originated in North Malabar.

The Puggera family of Kodavas were hereditary temple managers at the Bythoor temple which was in the dominion of the Mannanar raja, who like the Kolathiri was an ally of the Kodavas.

Likewise the Bovverianda and the Mundiolanda families of Kodavas were the hereditary temple managers at the Payyavur temple which was under the Kolathiri kings.

Kodavas revered weapons, such as guns and the traditional sword and dagger, which are essential for their ceremonial purposes and in accordance to their religious and cultural customs.

The Kodavas stood guard at the Mysore, Mangalore and Malabar boundary posts.

The support of the Kodagu native police, army and offices, held by Jamma ryots, who were mostly Kodavas while including people from a few other communities as well, exempted the Kodavas from the 1861 Indian Arms Act.

Kodavas revered nature and their ancestors they formerly hunted for sport, the Kodavas would even conduct ceremonies symbolically uniting in marriage the spirits of killed tigers with the spirit of the hunter, highlighting the intimate relationship between Kodava culture and the wildlife living in their forest realm.

The Kodavas felt the need for reform in response to such changes.

Besides the Kodavas there were other indigenous people who followed the same culture and spoke the same Kodava language.

One of them, the Amma Kodavas, were believed to be the original priests' at all important temples in Coorg including temples of Talakaveri, Igguthappa and Irupu.

In due course, the Amma Kodavas had no role to play in the religious aspects of the people of Coorg.

Today, many of the Amma Kodavas wear the sacred thread, a large number of them performing the rites a day before marriage .

The Kodagu Heggades and the Amma Kodavas are similar to the Kodavas and hence might have been related to them in the ancient past.

In Coorg many Kodavas were converted into Islam during the rule of Tippu Sultan in Coorg.

The Kodavas were listed as Kodagaru under the Category III A of the Other Backwards Caste List of Karnataka State Government.

Related searches

Kodavas have contributed immensely towards the growth of the Indian nation, despite them being in small numbers.

Many Kodavas joined the Indian armed forces both as officers and as servicemen.

Many Kodavas participated in the two World Wars before Indian Independence and in the wars against China and Pakistan after 1947.

Kodavas have a long history of association with the game of field hockey.

Kodavas language was a spoken language and had no written literature until 1900.

The Kodavas are almost all Hindus a few of them had taken up monkhood and contributed towards the development of the religion, especially in Kodagu and Mysore regions, the most famous among them being Swami Shambhavananda, Sadguru Appayya Swami and Swami Narayanananda.