Article on Mandadan Chetti Community By Philo Iruthayanath titled AnthropologyA NILGIRI COMMUNITY

           Anthropology

The Weekly Magazine Section of the HINDU Dated 11-5-1958

A NILGIRI COMMUNITY

By Iruthayanath Philo

            Among the various communities to be found on the Nilgiris is the “Mandadan Chetty” community.  This community is confined to a small area near Gudalur on the Mysore-)0tacamund bus route.  The people of this community live in five small villages called amsoms about five miles from Gudalur.  The five amsoms are Gudalur, Chimathurai,   Cherumulli, Padanthorai and Mudumalai amsoms. Their population is about 3,000. 

            The chief occupation of this community is agriculture.  All necessary food grains and sugarcane are being cultivated by them.  Some of them owning larger extents of lands are rich and they live in houses built of brick and tiles.  The majority, who are poor live in huts.  Most of their house hold utensils are mud pots though brass and bronze vessels are also used .

            The men   are somewhat fair in complexion and of good physique. A dhoti called [ mundu]  and an upper cloth are normal dress for a male but shirts are also worn by quite a good number.  Every male carries a knife [aruval] on his hip.  The women are generally pretty and well-built.  As a rule they do not come before strangers and are intensely religious.  Their mode of dress, hair do and wearing of ornaments are similar to those of women  of Malabar.  Normally the women wear a single sheet of white cloth round the body covering down to the knee.  However, now a days sarees and blouses are also being worn by many women. ,whenever they go outside their amsoms.  But during marriages and other ceremonies, they wear the traditional dress.  Usually women do not wear flowers.

            There is no age limit for marriages among this community and Both Post puberty  pre-puberty marriages are common.  Generally marriages are arranged by the  parents with the help of intermediates.  The bride and the groom do not see each other until after marriage.  The bridegroom’s  parents have to give the bride’s parents a certain amount of rice as dowry.  The marriage expenses are borne by the bridegroom’s parents. Polygamy is allowed but all marriages alliances are strictly confined to the five amsoms.  A Brahmin priest who is generally the village temple priest officiates in marriages.  The marriage ceremony is in the typical Hindu fashion with exchange of garlands between the bride and groom and the tying of Mangal.

            The Mandadan Chetti community eat meat, fish and birds besides grains.  They are prohibited from taking non-vegetarian  food on certain specified days.  They grow all kind of food grains including rice and also sugarcane.  Women also take part in the agricultural operations.  Poultry is developed on an extensive scale.  A few live by hunting in the nearby forests.

            In every amsom there is a panchayat board with a chairman who is known as “Nattukaaraamaikaar” This post is hereditary.  Any one committing an offence is  brought before the panchayat board who render justice by imposing fine.

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In the five amsoms there are six temples for different gods and goddesses.  The annual festival in these temples is conducted on an elaborate scale.  People believe in witches, sorcery, devils etc. and the temple priest is credited with powers to divine the future

The language spoken by the Mandadan Chetti community is a queer mixture of Urudu, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam with Malayalam  as the  dominant factor.  It has no script .  They use Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada for writing and reading. A general survey of the living condition of the community indicates that they are akin to the people of Kerala and have been greatly influenced by their customs and manners.  It is surmised.

                                             COMMENT A READER

            Sir,:-  The article on the `Mandadan Chetti` community of Nilgiris by Mr. Philo Iruthayanath published  in the Weekly Magazine Section of THE HINDU dated May11, makes interesting. In concluding the article, Mr. Philo Iruthayanath has surmised that these people must have originally belonged in the Kerala region.  But from the description of the customs and manners, complexion and living condition of these people as enumerated by the author , it looks as though they originally belonged to Coorg, now forming part of Mysore, and not to Kerala. Their physical condition, customs and manners, etc. are very much similar to the culture and customs of the Coorg people.

            The Coorgis are also fair in  complexion and are of good physique.  Their chief occupation is also agriculture.  The Coorgis also have a spoken language of their own [without script] which is also a queer mixture of Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Tulu languages.  They also use Kannada for reading and writing.

            Their marriage customs are more or less akin to the customs of the Mandadan Chetti community.  Among Coorgis, the practice of widow remarriage is in vogue.  The practice of re-marriage of divorced men and women, the burial and cremation of the dead, the mode of greeting the elders by touching their feet, the use of a small sword on festive occasions –all these are very much similar in both the cases.

            In the circumstances, I am of the opinion that the Mandadan Chetti community referred to by the author in his article, are the descendents of the Coorgis who might have migrated to the Nilgiris from their forest abodes in Coorg, abut the 16^th or 17^th century, for some reason or other, and this aspect of the question deserves study by students of anthropology.

Bangalore                                                                               K. Chetharamaiah

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