Hatti - Heritage in The Hills

Preface

I had the privilege of interacting with Dr Suresh Belliraj and his family, from the Badaga community in Kotagiri, to learn more about their culture. The Badagas are a local tribe that live in the Nilgiris. 

Dr Suresh also helped facilitate a visit to the nearby hatti (village/hamlet) called Bangalada where i was able to get a peek into how the badagas live. 

A Little History...

History is, as usual, complicated! Some of it may be true, some of it may not.

The problem with Badagas is that they do not have a script. So they do not have any recorded literature to say when and why the Badagas came to the Nilgiris. A lot of the information available today would be based on educated guesswork. So without the idea of a script, and somewhere written that this is where Badagas came from, one would have to look at clues. A good indictaor would be language, if we look at the whole of Southern Karnataka which comes into Tamil Nadu and further towards Mettupalyam and the niligiris, these areas all share a similar kind of structure of language. So that shows that the Badagas could have come from the South, which historians would agree with. What is controversial, however, is when the Badagas came to the Nilgiris. Most people believe that it was during Tipu sultans time others believe it was much earlier.. And if you look at it practically, if you were living in the foothills and had cattle, you will be going up the hill whenever it's dry. So to say that the Badagas came all at one time, like a mass migration may not be entirely correct. It is more likely that the Badagas came to the Nilgiris over time. If they all came during Tipu sultans time, in one rush, displaced the todas and other people who were living here that would have a different meaning from when it was over generations. But the fact that the Badagas always interacted with the todas, and always had economic interactions with them has a different meaning. So once again through clues and educated guesses it could have been over generations. But nobody can really prove either this way or that. The Badagas are believed to have come from the South of Karnataka, as language is a big indicator. Food and similar names such as Gowda, Lingayat etc are also indicators that they share a common kind of heritage. But you also have these other theories. Some people believe that the Badagas may be one of the lost tribes of Israel. Well, for now, we will just leave it there because no one can really prove anything, one way or the other. 

A Typical Day

Historically a typical day would have been an early start,  a cup of coffee without milk. The first meal was at 10am and was the largest meal made out of ragi or samai, which is common in most Badaga dishes. Depending on the type of work one either went to attend cattle or work in agricultural fields. Normally they would take a snack with them because the fields were quite far away and nobody actually came back for lunch. By about 5pm they would return and have a snack. Along the way they would collect items for food or firewood. They would then have a  large meal at 630.pm And that was end of day, Generally it was a two meal kind of system. When the weather was bad, for 3-4 months nobody could go out so they used this time to harvest a lot of their millets and curing meats. At that time the idea was to live, survive, eat.

After the tea industry came into being it transformed the Badaga community into a much more progressive farming community. And the timings got a little bit longer and more regular after that. 

The Major Occupation

Badagas were mostly either planters or farmers they were either in tea plantations or farming. Earlier a lot of cattle, dairy farming and a little bit of agriculture came into play but over the years as tea became a cash crop and did really well in the mid 80s and 90s most of the Badaga vcommunity went into tea plantations and also vegetable farming. Very few of them actually ran shops and establishments of that nature, however, today you will find very few Badagas in that industry as of late the tea intustry and vegetable farming have become erratic. A lot of the present generation youngsters are educated and are moving out to places like Banglore or the U.S trying to get a job related to IT. 

Millets and More

Millets is the staple for Badagas - particularly ragi, and samai. There was a lot of consumption of milk, curd butter, and ghee. And then on the side was hunting and foraging for anything in the forest - mushroom, bamboos etc. So before any of these influences came the spices and the savouries which came from peppers that were always grown at the foothills of the Nilgiris. Onions and garlic are the staples in making Chutney or a chicken curry. The Portuguese influence of potatoes and beans is also seen. You will not find a single Badaga dish that is without potatoes or beans. And the amaranth is also used quite a bit in certain places. The millets and the wheats are also very much part of their diet. 

Flora

Earlier it used to be all grasslands and shola. In the early days, a lot of Badagas used to practice what is like slash and burn agriculture. Over time the places that where suitable for tea converted to tea. some of the areas which are marshy, which are more suitable to vegetables were converted to vegetable farming. So that's the general trend. 

Fauna

Leopards, and tigers, and the mongoose, civets they are still around in the Nilgiris. Bison are

now common and there has been the rare sighting of elephants.

Jati (Caste)

There was a caste system that existed. There were the Lingayats - the Wodeas, the Adhikaris, The Harauvas who were the brahmins of the community and perfomed priestly rituals along with the Wodeas, then there are the Kaggusis, the Kannakas who were mainly account keepers, and the Toreas who used to live at the edge of the Badaga villages to help out with all the manual work.

Earlier each hatti consisted of one particular caste but off late, this caste system has almost disappeared because of inter-marriages between castes. There's no restrictions on movement or ownership or anything of that sort. 

Habba (Festivals)

The Hindu tradition exists in a lot of areas of the Nilgiris. In the western side of the Nilgiris, there is more of a solid Hindu tradition, there was Shiva and Ganesha. And very little influence of Vishnu. So those festivals like Ganesh Chaturthi and Diwali are celebrated a lot in those areas. 

Place of Worship

In some other parts of the Nilgiris, even though there are temples dedicated to the Hindu gods, they have the concept of a mother goddess, Hethai. Legend has it that somebody very pure and very saintly, just walked into the forest and just disappeared. So they have what they call Hethai festivals, and now predominantly that's even for almost all Badagas the most important festival - the Hethai Amman festival, where everybody gathers together, has a meal and witnesses the procession. This is normally in the first week of January or late December. Thousands of people, come and sit in a common area on the ground and get served rice and gravy and so on. It's quite a spectacle. They are all dressed in white for this festival. There's also a concept of Devi worship and a lot of people during the migration from South Karnataka to up the hill, used to stop near Masinagudi where there's a very powerful Devi temple to seek blessings to protect them from the animals going up and down. So every year, now someone from the village goes down for the Devi festival

It Takes A Village

Badaga Jewelry

A Badaga village tries to help everyone in anyway possible. Their concept is that, whatever the function is, whether it's a wedding, funeral, or health issue, everyone will contribute. So it is very traditional for Badagas to give money if there is a death, illness or wedding in the village. The moment somebody dies, the body belongs to the village. So the person who's facing the tragedy doesn't have to worry about finding the money to conduct the funeral and can mourn the death instead of worrying about other things. 

Badaga Attire

Clothing: Significance of White

If you go to festival, or a funeral but mainly the festivals they wrap themselves white. The men are in complete white. The ladies can wear a colourful sari while wrapping themselves with white on top of the sari. Some explain that white symbolizes simplicity and purity. So that everybody's the same. Once you're in white there's no distinction between a rich

person and a poor person. Another reason could be in terms of climate. When it is blazing hot white can be a cooling colour..

Looking Into The Future

With so many Badagas moving out of the Nilgiris and marrying outside  the community the population of the Badaga community is actually decreasing. Most believe that there should be things like schools, colleges, universities so the younger generation can get a good education from inside the village and will be spending most of their time there and might feel more attached to the village and they might not leave at all.   My Time At The Hatti I enjoyed my time at the hatti very much and I really like how much hospitality the Badaga people show and how friendly the Badagas are with people from outside their village.

The simplicity and kindness of the  Badaga people really touched my heart. I appreciated how the community comes together in good times and in bad times as well. Today nuclear families lack the community support. I noticed that there were a lot of senior citizens in the hatti and they looked happy and healthy. This is probably because they live within a community.