In 1905, an elaborate Badaga memorial ceremony for ancestors called manavalai, which takes place at long intervals, was celebrated on the Nīlgiris. I gather from the notes of a Native official that an enormous car, called ēlu kudi tēru (seven-storeyed car) was built of wood and bamboo, and decorated with silk and woollen fabrics, flags, and umbrellas. Inside the ground floor were a cot with a mattress and pillow, and the stem of a plantain tree. The souls of the ancestors are supposed to be reclining on the cot, resting their heads on the pillow, and chewing the plantain, while the umbrellas protect them from the sun and rain. The ear ornaments of all those who have died since the previous ceremony should be placed on the cot. “A Badaga fell and hurt himself during the erection of the car. Whereupon, another Badaga became possessed, and announced that the god was angry because a Kurumba had something to do with the building of the structure. A council meeting was held, and the Kurumba fined twenty-five rupees, which were credited to the god. Sixty-nine petty bazars and three beer taverns had been opened for the convenience of all classes of people that had assembled. One very old Badaga woman said that she was twelve years old when the first European was carried in a chair by the Todas, and brought up the ghāt to the Nīlgiris from Coimbatore. On Wednesday at 10 A.M. people from the adjoining villages were announced, and the Kota band, with the village people, went forward, greeted them, and brought them to the car. As each man approached it, he removed his turban, stooped over the pillow and laid his head on it, and then went to join the ring for the dance. The dancers wore skirts made of white long-cloth, white and cream silks and satins with border of red and blue trimming, frock dresses, and dressing-gowns, while the coats, blouses, and jackets were of the most gaudy colours of silk, velvet, velveteen, tweed, and home-spun. As each group of people arrived, they went first to the temple door, saluted the god, and went to the basement of the car to venerate the deceased, and then proceeded to dance for an hour, received their supplies of rice, etc., and cleared off. Thursday and Friday were the grandest days. Nearly three thousand females, and six thousand males, assembled on Thursday. To crown all the confusion, there appeared nearly a thousand Badagas armed with new mamotis (spades). They came on dancing for some distance, rushed into the crowd, and danced round the car. These Badagas belonged to a gang of public works, local fund, and municipal maistries. On the last day a sheep was slaughtered in honour of the deity. The musicians throughout the festivities were Kotas and Kurumbas. The dancing of the men of three score showed that they danced to music, and the stepping was admirable, while the dancing of young men did not show that they had any idea of dancing, or either taste or knowledge of music. They were merely skipping and jumping. This shows that the old art of the Badaga dance is fast decaying.” The cot is eventually burnt at the burning-ground, as if it contained a corpse.
A kind of edible truffle (Mylitta lapidescens) is known as little man’s bread on the Nīlgiris. The Badaga legendary name for it is Pāndva-unna-buthi, or dwarf bundle of food,[16] i.e., food of the dwarfs, who are supposed once to have inhabited the Nīlgiris and built the pāndu kūlis or kistvaens.
The story goes that Lord Elphinstone, a former Governor of Madras, was anxious to build a residence at Kaiti. But the Badagas, who had on the desired site a sacred tree, would not part with the land. The Governor’s steward succeeded in making the Badaga headman drunk, and secured, for a rental of thirty-five rupees annually, the site, whereon a villa was built, which now belongs to the Basel Mission.[17]
In a recent work,[18] Mr. A. H. Keane, in a note on the “Dravidian Aborigines,” writes as follows. “All stand on the very lowest rung of the social ladder, being rude hillmen without any culture strictly so called, and often betraying marked negroid characters, as if they were originally Negroes or Negritos, later assimilated in some respects to their Dravidian conquerors. As they never had a collective racial name, they should now be called, not Dravidians or proto-Dravidians, but rather pre-Dravidians, as more collectively indicating their true ethnical relations. Such are the Kotas, Irulas, Badagas, and Kurumbas.” It may be pointed out that the Badagas and Kotas of the Nīlgiri plateau are not “wild tribes,” have no trace of negroid characters, and no affinities with the Kurumbas and Irulas of the Nīlgiri slopes. The figures in the following table speak for themselves:—
| Stature. | Nasal Index. | |||||
| Average cm. | Maximum cm. | Minimum cm. | Average | Maximum | Minimum | |
| Badaga | 164.1 | 180.2 | 159.9 | 75.6 | 88.4 | 62.7 |
| Kota | 162.9 | 174.2 | 155. | 77.2 | 92.9 | 64. |
| Irula | 159.8 | 168. | 152. | 84.9 | 100. | 72.3 |
| Kurumba | 157.5 | 163.6 | 149.6 | 88.8 | 111. | 79.1 |
Badagi.—The carpenter sub-division of Pānchālas.
Badhōyi.—The Badhōyis are Oriya carpenters and blacksmiths, of whom the former are known as Badhōyi, and the latter as Komāro. These are not separate castes, and the two sections both interdine and intermarry. The name Badhōyi is said to be derived from the Sanskrit vardhaki, which, in Oriya, becomes bardhaki, and indicates one who changes the form, i.e., of timber. Korti, derived from korto, a saw, occurs as the name of a section of the caste, the members of which are wood-sawyers. Socially, the Badhōyis occupy the same position as Doluvas, Kālinjis, and various other agricultural classes, and they do not, like the Tamil Kammālans, claim to be Viswakarma Brāhmans, descended from Viswakarma, the architect of the gods.
The hereditary headman is called Mahārāna, and, in some places, there seem to be three grades of Mahārāna, viz., Mahārāna, Dondopāto Mahārāna, and Swangso Mahārāna. These headmen are assisted by a Bhollobhaya or Dolobēhara, and there is a further official called Agopothiria, whose duty it is to eat with an individual who is re-admitted into the caste after a council meeting. This duty is sometimes performed by the Mahārāna. Ordinary meetings of council are convened by the Mahārāna and Bhollobhaya. But, if a case of a serious nature is to be tried, a special council meeting, called kulo panchāyat, is held in a grove or open space outside the village. All the Mahārānas and other officers, and representatives of five castes (panchapātako) equal or superior to the Badhōyis in the social scale, attend such a council. The complainant goes to the Swangso Mahārāna, and, giving him fifty areca nuts, asks him to convene the council meeting. Punishment inflicted by the caste council usually assumes the form of a fine, the amount of which depends on the worldly prosperity of the delinquent, who, if very indigent, may be let off with a reprimand and warning. Sometimes offences are condoned by feeding Brāhmans or the Badhōyi community. Small sums, collected as fines, are appropriated by the headman, and large sums are set apart towards a fund for meeting the marriage expenses of the poorer members of the caste, and the expenditure in connection with kulo panchāyats.
Concerning the marriage ceremonies, Mr. D. Mahanty writes as follows. “At a marriage among the Badhōyis, and various other castes in Ganjam, two pith crowns are placed on the head of the bridegroom. On his way to the bride’s house, he is met by her purōhit (priest) and relations, and her barber washes his feet, and presents him with a new yellow cloth, flowers, and kusa grass (also called dharbha grass). When he arrives at the house, amid the recitations of stanzas by the priest, the blowing of conch shells and other music, the women of the bride’s party make a noise called hulu-huli, and shower kusa grass over him. At the marriage booth, the bridegroom sits upon a raised ‘altar,’ and the bride, who arrives accompanied by his maternal uncle, pours salt, yellow-coloured rice, and parched paddy (rice) over the head of the bridegroom, by whose side she seats herself. One of the pith crowns is removed from the bridegroom’s forehead, and placed on that of the bride. Various Brāhmanical rites are then performed, and the bride’s father places her hand in that of the bridegroom. A bundle of straw is now placed on the altar, on which the contracting parties sit, the bridegroom facing east, and the bride west. The purōhit rubs a little jaggery over the bridegroom’s right palm, joins it to the palm of the bride, and ties their two hands together with a rope made of kusa grass (hasthagonti). A yellow cloth is tied to the cloths which the bridal pair are wearing, and stretched over their shoulders (gontiyala). The hands are then untied by a married woman. Srādha is performed for the propitiation of ancestors, and the purōhit, repeating some mantrams (prayers), blesses the pair by throwing yellow rice over them. On the sixth day of the ceremony, the bridegroom runs away from the house of his father-in-law, as if he was displeased, and goes to the house of a relation in the same or an adjacent village. His brother-in-law, or other male relation of the bride, goes in search of him, and, when he has found him, rubs some jaggery over his face, and brings him back.” As an example of the stanzas recited by the purōhit, the following may be cited:—
I have presented with my mind and word, and also with kusa grass and water.