r. 3 CHAPTKR_I1 : HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE BUMTS 2.1 Parasu Rarna Sristi 2.2 Situation of South Kanara 2.3 Languages of the District 2.4 Who are the Bunts ? 2.5 Deffion Worships 2.6 Different Types of Bhuta Worship 2.7 Serpent Worship Brought by Brahmins 2.8 Four Sub-divisions of Bunt Caste 2.9 Bunts Other Characteristics 2.10 Marriage System 2.11 Agriculture And Trade 2.12 Land Tenures 2.13 Divisions of Time -0==0- 4; CHAPTER II HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF_THE_BIJiWTS INTRODUCT ION : No definite historic record relating to South 1 2 Kanara-^ or Tuluva has been found of earlier date than the eighth or ninth century A.D., but it must certainly at one time have formed part of Kerala,the Western of the three ancient Dravidian kingdoms men­ tioned in king Ashoka's rock-cut inscriptions of the 3 third century B.C. Prior to the introduction of Brahmins under the auspices of Kadamba kings in the eighth century, the early agricultural population of Tuluva seems to have held a subordinate position to the Na'yars or Bunts, who were the military adherents of the chieftains who ruled as feudatories of an overlord, who, in his turn was recognised by some more distant suzerain. The re- !• Mr. H.A.Stuart' s,'The Manual of South Kanara',Chap. II.History and Archaeology P.54.Govt.Press Madras, year 1895. 2. 'Tuluva'-The larger portion of the district is made up of the old country of Tuluva. J.3turrock;Madras district Manuals.South Kanara Vol.1 Govt. Press. 1894. 3' G.Srinivas Murti and A.N.Krishna Aiyangar. 'Edict of A~soka', Ashoka's rock Edict II. The Adyar Li­ brary, 1950. Madras. P.5. 45 ligion of the chiefs was probably Jalnism, but the great mass of the people were then, as now, practi­ cally demon worshippers. ^•l PARASU RAMA SRISTI : According to the • Graraapadittl' (legend) of 'Tulu',-^ Brahmins, Tuluva and Haiga were created by Parasu Rama by reclaiming from the sea as much land as he could his cover by throwing/^axe (Parasu) from the top of the Western Ghats, and to secure Brahmins for the reclaim­ ed tract he took a number of fishermen's nets,tore them up, and made Brahminal threads (Yadnyopavlta) with which he invested the fishermen and turned them into Brahmins, after which he retired to meditate, inform­ ing the newly created Brahmins that if they were in distress and called upon him he would come to their aid. So it was called 'Parasurama Sristi'. 2.2 SITUATION OF .SOUTH_.KANARA : South Kanara, the Southern Coastal District of Mysore with an area of about 3,150 sq.miles, lies bet­ ween 12°and 30°58' North Latitude and 74°36'and 75°4o' East longitude. The population of 1,563,837 in 1961 comes to 496.46 per sq.mile. In terms of area and population, the district makes 4.3 and 6.6 per cent 1. Tulu or Tuluva is the language of nearly one half of the inhabitants of the South Kanara district. 46 of the State, respectively. Upto 1st November, 1956, i.e. till the Reorgani­ sation of States, this district stretching over a length of 150 miles and breadth of 25 miles at its narrowest, and 50 miles in its videst part formed a part of the Madras State, along with the northern­ most Island of Araindivi of the Laccadive group of islands. But on Reorganisation of States, Kasargod taluk stood transferred to the Kerala State, the Amindivi Islands were brought under Central Adminis­ tration along with the other islands of the Laccadive group, and the rest of the district came to be in­ cluded in the new State of Mysore. This district, spreading from the Western Ghats towards the sea to the west, has to its north the North Kanara District, to the east the districts of Shimoga, Chikmagalur, Hassan and Coorg, to the South the Kasargod Taluka of Kerala State and to the west the Arabian Sea. It forms a long and narrow strip of country. The district can be divided into three belts, the coastal strip, the middle belt and the Western Ghat section. An interesting feature of the part of the coast­ al strip and the middle belt is that it is not a plain Kf. ,,"••-• ". "."r-,:. ;^^, r DISTRITC OF SOUTH KANARA 47 but a series of estuarine low lands separated by- numerous hlllranges projecting on the western ghats. The coastal tract is the most thickly populated paurt of the district as it is both fertile and has trad­ ing facilities. The middle belt consists of hills and dales and forms into an undulating terrain. The valleys are fertile and boast of several gardens producing chief­ ly Areca and Coconut. Patches of paddy fields can also be seen. For administration purposes, the district is di­ vided into 7 taluks, as Buntwal, Belthangady, Puttur, Karkala, Mangalore, Udipi and Coondapur. The district headquarters are at Mangalore, the chief town of South Kanara, which lies in the Western Sector of the far south. This place is now gaining importance as a major all weather port. The port development work is still (In a survey and developmental stage. For the census of 1961, 13 places, viz., Coondapur, Gangoli, Malpe, Mulki, Puttur, Udipi, Tonse West and Ullal are clas­ sified as urban, leaving 669 villages in the rural category. The five principal rivers of South Kanara are (1) Netravathi (2) Gurpura (3) Gangoli (4) Sitanadi and (5) Suvarnanadi. They all run from east to west. 48 This parallel drainage pattern of these rivers suf­ fers from a drawback. It is the intense monsoonal periodicity in their flow. They suffer from too much water during the rainy season and too little during the rest of the year. So if in the rainy season they are not very navigable due to floods, in the dry wea­ ther this is not possible because of the lack of flowing water and the rocky character of their beds. Within these limits, however, they are as extensive­ ly used as possible. The name of the district, ' Kanara' or 'Karnadu' is derived according to Dr. Caldwell from two old Dravidian words words ' kar' means black and ' nadu* A mean^ *^ountry, referring to the black cotton soil of the Southern plateau of the Deccan where the early kanarese kingdoms were. Gradually the name ' karnala' spread to all the countries under the domination of the rulers of karnala, and was corrupted into Kan- nada, whence the English name 'Kanara', which is now confined to Western coast. 2.3 LANGUAGES OF THE DISTBICT : Although kannada is the official language of 1. R.Caldwell's Comparative Grammar of Dravidian or South Indian family of Languages. Ed.Wyatt & Pillai. 1961. Luzac: London, p. 34 49 the district and spoken by all the educated clsisses, Tulu, or the language of ancient 'Tuluva' is still spoken by the majority of the population. It has the curious factor of linguistic independence without a character or literature of its own. It has shown no indication of being driven out by other and more widely spoken languages. Dr. Caldwell describes Tulu as "one of the most highly developed languages of the Dravidian family." The kannada script has lately been adopted in print­ ing modern Tulu works, and it is likely that Tulu will ultimately give way to that language. 2,4 WHO ARE THE BUNTS ? Mangalore is distinguished from the rest of Mysore State, by the exceptionally high proportion of Bunts in its rural population. In fact, the Bunts population of South India is small in number. Still the majority of Bunts were located in South Kanara. Nothing very definite is known of the origin of the Bunts, but 'Tuluva' seems, in the eajly centuries of 1. Census of India 1961, Vol.1. Part Xl-C(i),Language Monographs. Language Division Office of Registrar General; India, pp. 291, 327, 378. 2. Please see H.A.Stuart's. The Manual of South Kanara (Govt.Press Madras,1895) and M.E.Thufton's.,The Caste^'-and Tribes of Southern India. ^ 50 the Christian era, to have had kings who apparently were sometimes independent and sometimes feudatory overlords such as the Pallavas, the early Kadambas, The early GhaLukyans, the Kalachurians and the Hoysal Ball a'Is. This indicates a constant state of fighting which would account for an important class of the popula­ tion being known as ' Buntaru' or warriors. So Bunt, means in Tulu a powerful man or soldier and indicates that the Bunts were originally a military class cor­ responding to the Nayars of Malabar. And as a matter of course they succeeded in becoming the owners of all the land which did not fall to the share of the priestly class, the Brahmins. In her book, on 'the Kinship Organization in India' Dr. I.Karve 1 ' describe•• d that "the word Bunt means "wajriors" and they have tradition of being warriors in the mediaeval times. The Nadavas of the North Kanara districts are supposed to be a branch of the Bunts though they now speak Kannada." The Nadavas belong to the northerly parts of South Kanara, their name is derived from the word 'Nadu'in Kannada,. which means 'country'. Correspon- 1. Dr. I.Karve, Kinship Organization in India. Asia Publishing House, Bombay 1. 1965. P. 271. 51 dingly, the Bunts of the northern parts of Kanara still answer to the territorial name of Nad Bunts, or warriors of the nadu or territory. It is nece­ ssary to explain that in both ancient Keralam and Tulu the functions of the great military and domi­ nant classes were so distributed that only certain classes were bound to render military service to the ruling prince.