Thursday, November 1, 2007

52. Munda aborigines of Karavali

When Early Tulu tribes migrating from Pirak region came and settled in Karavali (coastal tract) of present Karnataka around 750 -600 BC, they found the coastal tract was already inhabited by civilized people living in village type settlements with agricultural, farming and pastoral occupations. The whole of southern India, especially all hospitable river banks and estuaries were inhabited by proto-Munda tribes.

Proto-Munda (south)
Let us use the word ‘Proto-Munda (south)’ to denote these aborigines of southern India because the generally prevailing socio-anthropological impression is that there are no Munda (language/ culture) groups in southern India at present. But there are distinct and strong evidences for their presence in southern India and by the time Early Tulu and Dravidian tribes arrived on the south Indian scene ca.750-600.
The Munda tribes are currently distributed in parts of central and eastern India. This present limited distribution of Munda tribes may be only the relics of a bygone vast empire of Proto-Munda groups that were spread all over India during the Neolithic period. They evolved into several subgroups and sub languages of their own before the arrival of relatively later entrants. The civilized among the Proto-Munda tribes during the course of subsequent history, were eventually assimilated with later entrants into the region like Dravidians and Indo-Aryans.

Early Tulu and Proto-Munda encounter
Early Tulu tribes initially settled in favorable estuaries of rivers proximal to the sea. Probably the estuaries and river banks of Sharavathi (around Honnavar), Swarna-Seetha (around Hoode-Hangarakatta), Haladi (around Barkur-Kundapur), formed the initial settlements of Early Tulu tribes judging by the distribution of major ancient primary settlements (moolasthanas).Adequate archeological supporting data may not be available for want of detailed studies or because of destructions due to extensive rainfall, fluctuation in the sea levels, changes in the river courses and floods that characterize the region.
Proto-Munda tribes must have been a dominant cultural group in Tulunad when people with ‘Tulu’ tag arrived from the north. As the Early Tulu tribes encountered Proto-Munda tribes, the former noticed that the latter are relatively a shorter breed, a physiology characterized by broad foreheads, Munda were wearing different attires or dressing styles. Early Tulu people coined several words containing Munda affixes to denote items new or strange to them but common for the pre-existing Mundas! Obviously,these words are not from Munda language but coined by early Tulu people.
So Tulu language acquired a few new words like ‘mundu’1 (= a sheet of cloth traditionally wrapped around the hips) ‘mundas’(a sheet of cloth wrapped around the head), ‘mundu’2 (a measure about five feet, average size of a Munda man in those days),’mundu’3 (=knee),’munda’(=forehead) etc. (The Munda tribes apparently had prominent, high or wide foreheads and their knees were exposed, unlike the new comers from colder region who covered their entire body in the beginning).
Newcomers from the northwest were of tall breed. They called themselves ‘aaL’ (=literally means one person) One ‘aaL’ represented six feet of height.
Both these relative height measures of ‘mundu’ and ‘aaL’ co-exist even now in rural Tulu usage.
Tulu tribes slowly encroached into the Karavali inlands, where Munda tribes already had built settlements. For convenience of refernce, Tulu tribes named these Munda dominated settlements like Mundadi, Mundukur,Mundaje etc.

‘Munda’ related words in Tulu
Some of the Munda related words coined in Tulu language are cited below:
1. Names of Munda villages/settlements:
Mundukur, Mundagaru, Mundagodu, Mundadi, Mundodi, Mundaje, Mundur, Mundrupadi, Mundaka, Kallamundukur etc
2.Names of Munda plants:
‘Mundevu’ (Pandanus utilis), Mundu tevu, Munda kalli,
3. Names for Munda Attire:
‘Mundu’(waiste cloth, a standard part of rural attire even now in southwestern coastal India), ‘Mundas’ (=a native headgear, fashioned by rolling and tying a longer cloth around the head),
4. Names of Munda measure:
1.one ‘Mundu’=about five feet. (Average height of a short Munda man).
Possibly Munda men were of shorter stature than the newly arrived Tulu tribes.
2.one ‘AaL’= about six feet (An average height of a tall man).
5. Names of parts of the human Body:
‘mundu’= knee, ‘munda’ =forehead. (Kasha ) ‘mundana’ =shaving head.
(The word ‘munda’ in Kannada refers to the trunk or the body part below the head, as against runda=head .
6. Name of Tribe/language: Mundala.

5 comments:

  1. I am a tulu speaking Bunt (Shetty) from Mangalore.

    I came across your blog and the unusual emphasis on the work 'Pirak'

    The word Pirak on which your tuluva research is based, is a word that I have never ever come across in my everyday communications.

    In order to reconfirm the same, I investigated around and spoke with many elders of our community who again claimed to have no knowledge of the existence of the word 'Pirak'.

    The words ' baari dummbu da' or 'baari purana da' or 'baari puratana da' is generally used to denote the words "very ancient'

    Pirak is as unknown to us Manglorean Bunts as is 'bisi bele bath' .
    So I hope you can understand my perplexity in the matter.

    It is possible that :

    1. Pirak might be used by non-bunt tuluva communities like bilavas, brahmins etc.

    OR

    2. Pirak might be used in talukas other than Mangalore as the usage of words is known to change from one taluka to next.

    Any enlightements is welcome.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear Rama Shetty
    Thank you for comments.In the first place,I am sorry that I over-emphasized the word 'Pirak'.But sometimes over-emphasis pays, in the sense, many of our Tulu citizens shall be aware that we had an unusual word known as 'Pirak'. The usage of word 'Pirak' is common to all communities of 'Tuluvas. But unfortunately, many members of the present upcoming generation may be forgetting that word(and may be many such old words) specifically as a consequence of modernization.It is a sort of evolution within the Tulu language in tune with changing times.
    If you need further proof for the existence of the word 'Pirak' in Tulu, please refer to the authoritative 'Tulu Nighantu' (Tulu Lexicon){volume V, 1997,page No 2025) published by Govinda Pai Research Centre, Udupi.The word is classified in the lexicon as 'chtj' which means that it is used by Common Tuluvas( Bunt, Billava, Mogaveera), Harijans,Tribals and Jains.
    Alternate words cited by you,ie, 'purana' and 'puratana'are introduced in recent Tulu as a direct influence(or borrowed) from Hindi/Marathi(Mumbai) and Kannada(Mysore/Bangalore) environs respectively.
    The 'Bisi bele bath' unknown in Mangalore, is being avidly offered by the popular Mangalorean hotels in Mysore and Bangalore!

    ReplyDelete
  3. This post is a bit too late. However, I am a bunt too and I use this word 'Pirak' quite often, to denote something that is ancient. Since I was a child I am used to my grandmother and her parents using this word. I infact checked this again with my cousins and they use it as well.
    eg:
    Avvu bhari pirak andu.
    Avvu pirak-uda kalada.
    Pirak-uda gadhe (sayings..)
    Avvu bhari pirak-udu athina kathe..

    In fact we do not use puratana-da as this is more a kannada word as opposed to tulu specific

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi I stumbled upon this article by accident and I must say I am very fortunate.
    Concerning the current discussion- in Malayalam we use the word Piragu as in Piragotu, Piragilekk etc all indicating bygone. Mr. Ravi Mandku, do you think we are talking about the same word? If it is, then I must tell you that this word is very widely used in kerala. Can u throw some light on this?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Jith, the 'piragu', piragottu etc usages you cited from Kerala must be the Malayalam equivalents(modifications) of the original word and place name 'Pirak'.
    This analogy once again proves that Tulu and Malayalam people have shared ancestry and heritages.

    ReplyDelete

Blog Archive

Books for Reference

  • A Comparative Study of Tulu Dialects By Dr. Padmanabha Kekunnaya. Govinda Pai Reserach Centre, UDupi. 1994
  • Koti Chennaya: Janapadiya Adhyayana. By Dr. Vamana Nandavar. Hemanshu Prakashana ,Mangalore.2001.
  • Male kudiyaru. Dr B. A.Viveka Rai and D.Yadupathi Gowda, Mangalore University,1996.
  • Mogaveera Samskriti By Venkataraja Punimchattaya. Karnataka Sahitya Academy.1993.
  • Mugeraru:Jananga Janapada Adhyayana. By Dr Abhaya Kumar Kaukradi.Kannada & Culture Directorate,Bangalore & Karnataka Tulu Academy, Mangalore,1997.
  • Puttubalakeya Pad-danagalu. Ed: Dr B.A.Viveka Rai,Yadupati Gowda and Rajashri, Sri Dharmasthala Manjunatheswara Tulu Peeta. Mangalore University.2004
  • Se'erige. Ed:Dr K.Chinnapa Gowda.Madipu Prakashana,Mangalagangotri,2000.
  • Studies in Tuluva History and Culture.by Dr P Gururaja Bhat (1975).Milagres College,Kallinapur,Udupi.
  • Taulava Sanskriti by Dr.B.A.Viveka Rai, Sahyadri Prakashana,Mysore 1977
  • TuLu naaDu-nuDi By Dr.PalthaDi Ramakrishna Achar, Puttur.
  • TuLu NighanTu. (Editor in Chief: Dr U.P.Upadhyaya, Govinda Pai Research Centre,Udupi. Six volumes. 1988 to 1997
  • Tulu Patero-A Philology & Grammar of Tulu Language by Budhananda Shivalli.2004.Mandira Prakashana Mangalore. p.317. (The book is in Tulu Language using Kannada script)
  • TuLunadina ShasanagaLa Sanskritika Adhyayana. By Shaila T. Verma (2002) Jnanodaya Prakashana,Bangalore, p.304.(Kannada)
  • Tuluvala Baliyendre. Compiled by N.A.Sheenappa Hegde,Polali,Sri Devi Prakashana,Parkala,1929/1999

A Coastal estuary

A Coastal estuary
Holegadde near Honavar,Uttara Kannada dist, Karnataka

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