Badagas

The Badagas are a tribe inhabiting the Nilgiri Hills in southern India, by some authorities declared not to be an aboriginal or jungle race. They are probably Dravidian by descent, though they are by religion Hindus of the Saiva sect. They are supposed to have migrated to the Nilgiris from Mysore around 1600, after the breaking up of the kingdom of Vijayanagara. They are an agricultural people and far the most numerous and wealthy of the hill tribes. They pay a tribute in grain to the Todas. Their language is Badaga, a dialect of Kannada. At the census of 1971, they numbered around 104,392.

References

See J. W. Breeks, An Account of the Primitive Tribes of the Nilgiris (1873); Nilgiri Manual, vol. i. pp. 218-228; Madras Journ. of Sci. and Lit. vol. viii. pp. 103-105; Madras Museum Bulletin, vol. ii., no. i, pp. 1-7.

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