The Billava, Billoru, Biruveru or Bhillava people are an ethnic group of India. They constitute 18% of the total Karnata population. They are found traditionally in

Tulu Nadu Tulu Nadu, or Tulunad, is a region and Proposed states and union territories of India, proposed state on the southwestern coast of India. The Tulu people, known as 'Tuluva' (pl. 'Tuluver') are speakers of Tulu language, Tulu, a Dravidian langu ...

region and engaged in

toddy tapping Palm wine, known by several local names, is an alcoholic beverage created from the sap of various species of palm trees such as the palmyra, date palms, and coconut palms. It is known by various names in different regions and is common in v ...

, cultivation and other activities. They have used both missionary education and Sri Narayana Guru's reform movement to upgrade themselves.

Etymology and origins

L. K. Ananthakrishna Iyer Diwan Bahadur Lakshminarayanapuram Krishna Ananthakrishna Iyer (1861–1937) was an anthropologist of British India. He is known for his work among the hill tribes of the western part of Madras province. Early life Ananthakrishna Iyer was born ...

recounted the community's belief that ''billava'' means ''bowmen'' and that it "applied to the castemen who were largely employed as soldiers by the native rulers of the district".

Edgar Thurston Edgar Thurston (1855– 12 October 1935) was the British Superintendent at the Madras Government Museum from 1885 to 1908 who contributed to research studies in the fields of zoology, ethnology and botany of India, and later also published ...

had reached a similar conclusion in 1909. The Billavas are first recorded in inscriptions dating from the fifteenth century AD but

Amitav Ghosh Amitav Ghosh (born 11 July 1956)Ghosh, Amitav
, ''

notes that "... this is merely an indication of their lack of social power; there is every reason to suppose that all the major Tuluva castes share an equally long history of settlement in the region". The earliest epigraphy for the Tuluva

Bunt Bunt may refer to: People * Darrell Bunt (1902–1977), Royal Navy chaplain * Dick Bunt (1929–2021), American basketball player * Raymond Bunt (born 1944), Pennsylvania politician * Bunt Stephens (John L. Stephens, 1889–1951), or Uncle Bunt ...

community dates to around 400 years earlier.

Language

There is a complex linguistic environment in

, which is the area of India to which the Billavas trace their origin. A compact geographic area, Tulu Nadu lies on the coastal belt of Karnataka and Kerala and has natural boundaries in the form of the

Arabian Sea The Arabian Sea () is a region of sea in the northern Indian Ocean, bounded on the west by the Arabian Peninsula, Gulf of Aden and Guardafui Channel, on the northwest by Gulf of Oman and Iran, on the north by Pakistan, on the east by India, and ...

, the hills of the Western Ghats and the rivers Suvarna and

Chandragiri Chandragiri is a suburb and outgrowth of Tirupati and located in Tirupati district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is a part of Tirupati urban agglomeration and a major growing residential area in Tirupati It is the mandal headquarter ...

. It includes the South Canara district of Karnataka and the Kasaragod area of Kerala, which were formerly united for administrative purposes within the

Madras Presidency The Madras Presidency or Madras Province, officially called the Presidency of Fort St. George until 1937, was an administrative subdivision (province) of British India and later the Dominion of India. At its greatest extent, the presidency i ...

. Although many languages and dialects are traditionally to be found there—for example, Tulu,

Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

Konkani __NOTOC__ Konkani may refer to: Language * Konkani language is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Konkan region of India. * Konkani alphabets, different scripts used to write the language **Konkani in the Roman script, one of the scripts used to ...

and

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India **Marathi people (Uttar Pradesh), the Marathi people in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Mar ...

—it is the first two of these that are common throughout, and of those two it is Tulu that gave rise to the region's name. Traditionally, Kannada is used in formal situations such as education, while Tulu is the ''lingua franca'' used in everyday communication. Tulu is more accepted as the primary language in the north of the Tulu Nadu region, with the areas south of the Netravati river demonstrating a more traditional, although gradually diminishing, distinction between that language and the situations in which Kannada is to be preferred. A form of the Tulu language known as Common Tulu has been identified, and this is spreading as an accepted standard for formal communication. Although four versions of it exist, based on geographic demarcations and also the concentration of various caste groups within those areas, that version which is more precisely known as Northern Common Tulu is superseding the other three dialects. the

Brahmin Brahmin (; ) is a ''Varna (Hinduism), varna'' (theoretical social classes) within Hindu society. The other three varnas are the ''Kshatriya'' (rulers and warriors), ''Vaishya'' (traders, merchants, and farmers), and ''Shudra'' (labourers). Th ...

community use Common Tulu only to speak with those outside their own caste, while communities such as the Bunts, Billavas and

Goud Goud is a caste, predominantly settled in the Indian states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Gouds are traditionally involved in the occupation of soma preparation, Ayurvedhic physicians and farmers. They worship gods such as Yellamma,Pochamma ...

s use it frequently, and the tribal communities are increasingly abandoning their own dialects in favour of it. William Logan's work ''Manual of Malabar'', a publication of the

British Raj The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule ...

period, recognised the Billavas as being the largest single community in South Canara, representing nearly 20 per cent of that district's population.

Marriage, death and inheritance

The Billavas practised the

matrilineal Matrilineality, at times called matriliny, is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which people identify with their matriline, their mother's lineage, and which can involve the inheritan ...

system of inheritance known as ''

Aliya Kattu Aliyasantana, literally "nephew or niece as heir" in Tulu, is the matrilineal system of inheritance practiced by Tuluva community in the Tulunaad region of Karnataka, India. It is similar to the ''Marumakkathayam'' system of the Kerala. Nephew h ...

'' or ''Aliya Santana''. Ghosh describes that this system entailed that "men transmit their immovable property, not to their own children, but matrilineally, to their sister's children." Iyer described the rules regarding marriage as Marriage of widows was permitted but the wedding ritual in such cases was simplified. An amended version of the ceremony was also used for situations where an illegitimate child might otherwise result: the father had to marry the pregnant woman in such circumstances. Women were considered to be ritually polluted at the time of their first menstrual cycle and also during the period of pregnancy and childbirth. The Billava dead are usually cremated, although burial occurs in some places, and there is a ritual pollution period observed at this time also. The Billava community is one of a few in India that practice

posthumous marriage Posthumous marriage (also known as necrogamy or ghost marriage) is a marriage in which at least one of the participating members is deceased. By country China In China, there is a rare tradition called ''minghun'' or a spirit marriage. This can ...

. Others that do so include the

Badagas The Badagas are an ethno-linguistic community living in the Nilgiris district in Tamil Nadu, India. Throughout the district the Badugas live in nearly 400 villages, called Hattis. The Badagas speak a language called Badaga language, Badaga. ...

, Komatis and the

Todas The Toda people are a Dravidian ethnic group who live in the state of Tamil Nadu in southern India. Before the 18th century and British colonisation, the Toda coexisted locally with other ethnic communities, including the Kota, Badaga and K ...

Subgroups

All of the Tuluva castes who participate fully in ''Bhuta'' worship also have loose family groupings known as ''balis''. These groups are also referred to as "septs", and are similar to the Brahmin

gotras In Hindu culture, the term gotra (Sanskrit: गोत्र) is considered to be equivalent to Lineage (anthropology), lineage. It broadly refers to people who are descendants in an unbroken male line from a common male ancestor or patriline ...

except that their membership is based on matrilineal rather than patrilineal descent. Iyer noted 16 ''balis'' within the Billava community and that some of these had further subdivisions. Thurston said of these

exogamous Exogamy is the social norm of mating or marrying outside one's social group. The group defines the scope and extent of exogamy, and the rules and enforcement mechanisms that ensure its continuity. One form of exogamy is dual exogamy, in which tw ...

Billava groups that "There is a popular belief that these are sub-divisions of the twenty balis which ought to exist according to the Aliya Santana system (inheritance of the female line)."

Worship of ''Bhutas''

The Billavas were among the many communities to be excluded from the Hindu temples of

s and they traditionally worship spirits in a practice known as ''

Bhuta Kola Būta Kōlā,/buːt̪ʌ/ is the local pronunciation while the standardised Sanskrit+Tulu pronunciation is /bʱuːt̪ʌ koːlɑː/ also referred to as Daiva Kōlā or Daiva Nēmā, is a shamanistic Hindu dance performance practised, believed a ...

''. S. D. L. Alagodi wrote in 2006 of the South Canara population that "Among the Hindus, a little over ten per cent are Brahmins, and all the others, though nominally Hindus, are really propitiators or worshippers of tutelary deities and ''bhutas'' or demons." The venues for ''Bhuta Kola'' are temple structures called ''Bhutasthana'' or ''Garidi'' as well as numerous shrines. The officiators at worship are a subcaste of Billavas, known as '' Poojary'' (priest), and their practices are known as '' pooja''. Iyer noted that families often have a place set aside in their home for the worship of a particular ''Bhuta'' and that the worship in this situation is called ''Bhuta Nema''. Iyer, who considered the most prevalent of the Billava ''Bhutas'' to be the twin heroes

Koti and Chennayya Koti and Chennayya ( Kōṭi Cennayya,) (Circa 1556 A.D to 1591 A.D.) are legendary Tuluva twin heroes characterized in the Tulu epic of the same name, which is considered one of the two truly long epics in the Tulu language. The birthplace of ...

, also described the spirits as being of people who when living had More recently, Ghosh has described a distinction between the ''Bhuta'' of southern India, as worshipped by the Billavas, and the similarly named demons of the north ''Bhuta Kola'' is a cult practised by a large section of Tulu Nadu society, ranging from landlords to the Dalits, and the various hierarchical strands all have their place within it. While those at the top of this hierarchical range provide patronage, others such as the Billava provide the practical services of officiating and tending the shrines, while those at the bottom of the hierarchy enact the rituals, which include aspects akin to the regional theatrical art forms known as

Kathakali ''Kathakali'' (International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: Kathakaḷi ) is a traditional form of Indian Classical Dance, and one of the most complex forms of Theatre of India, Indian theatre. It is a play of verses. These vers ...

and

Yakshagana Yakshagana is a traditional theatre, found in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Kasaragod district and Uttara Kannada, Shimoga and western parts of Chikmagalur district, Chikmagalur districts, in the state of Karnataka and in Kasaragod district in Keral ...

. For example, the ''pooja'' rituals include devil-dancing, performed by the lower class

Paravar Paravar (also known as Bharathar or Bharathakula Kshatriyar) is a predominantly Catholic Tamil maritime community, mainly living in the state of Tamil Nadu, and in Sri Lanka. Historically, they were inhabitants of the ''Neithal'' (coastal) lands ...

or Naike, and the Bunts – who were historically ranked as superior to the Billava– rely upon the ''Poojary'' to officiate. There was a significance in the Bunt landholdings and the practice of ''Bhuta'' worship. As the major owners of land, the Bunts held geographic hubs around which their tenant farmers and other agricultural workers were dispersed. The Billavas, being among the dispersed people, were bonded to their landlords by the necessities of livelihood and were spread so that they were unable to unite in order to assert authority. Furthermore, the ''Bhuta'' belief system also provided remedies for social and legal issues: it provided a framework for day-to-day living. Thurston noted that ''Baidya'' was a common name among the community, as was ''Poojary''. He was told that this was a corruption of ''Vaidya'', meaning a physician.

Traditional occupations

Heidrun Brückner describes the Billavas of the nineteenth century as "frequently small tenant farmers and agricultural labourers working for Bunt landowners." Writing in 1930, Iyer described the community as being involved mostly in

, although they also had involvements in agriculture and in some areas were so in the form of peasant tenant landholders known as '' raiyats''. This was echoed in a report of the

Indian Council of Agricultural Research The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is an autonomous body responsible for co-ordinating agricultural education and research in India. It reports to the Department of Agricultural Research and Education, Ministry of Agriculture. Th ...

of 1961, which said that "The Billavas are concentrated mostly in South Kanara district. Though toddy tappers by profession, they rely mostly on cultivation. They are generally small landowners or lessees ..." According to Ghosh, "By tradition, he Billavasare also associated with the martial arts and the single most famous pair of Tuluva heroes, the brothers Koti-Chennaya, are archetypal heroes of the caste who symbolize the often hostile competition between the Billavas and the Bunts." Neither Thurston nor Iyer make any reference to this claim.

Culture

'' Tuluva paddanas'' are sung narratives which are part of several closely related singing traditions, similar to ''

Vadakkan Pattukal Vadakkan Pattukal () are a collection of Malayalam ballads from the medieval period (12th-20th century). The genre as a whole represents the sentiment of ''vira'', or the heroic, through its depictions of "valour and sacrifice." Contents The s ...

'' (Northern ballads) of northern Kerala and which may be considered ballads, epics or ritual songs (depending on the context or purpose for which they are sung). The community has special occasions in which it is traditional to sing ''paddanas''. They will sing the ''Paddana of Koti-Chennaya'' during a ceremony on the eve of a marriage. Women who sing the song in the fields will sing those verses appropriate for the young heroes.

Social changes

The Billava community suffered ritual discrimination under the Brahmanic system—of which the

caste system in Kerala The caste system in Kerala differed from that found in the rest of India. While the Indian caste system generally divided the four-fold ''Varna'' division of the society into Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras, in Kerala, that system wa ...

was perhaps the most extreme example until the twentieth century. They were, however, allowed to live in the same villages as Brahmins. Some Billavas had seen the possibility of using religion as a vehicle for the social advancement of their community, as the

s had previously attempted in their conversion to Christianity. The British had wrested the region from the control of

Tipu Sultan Tipu Sultan (, , ''Sultan Fateh Ali Sahab Tipu''; 1 December 1751 – 4 May 1799) commonly referred to as Sher-e-Mysore or "Tiger of Mysore", was a ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore based in South India. He was a pioneer of rocket artillery ...

in 1799, as a consequence of the

Fourth Anglo-Mysore War The Fourth Anglo-Mysore War was a conflict in South India between the Kingdom of Mysore against the British East India Company and the Hyderabad Deccan in 1798–99. This was the last of the four Anglo-Mysore Wars. The British captured the capi ...

, and in 1834 the Christian

Basel Mission The Basel Mission is a Christianity, Christian missionary society based in Switzerland. It was active from 1815 to 2001, when it transferred the operative work to , the successor organization of ''Kooperation Evangelischer Kirchen und Missione'' ...

arrived in

Mangalore Mangaluru (), formerly called Mangalore ( ), is a major industrial port city in the Indian state of Karnataka and on the west coast of India. It is located between the Laccadive Sea and the Western Ghats about west of Bengaluru, the st ...

. These evangelists were among the first to take advantage of a relaxation of rules that had prevented non-British missionaries from working in India, and theirs was the first Protestant mission of any nationality in the area. They initially condemned the caste system because it was an inherent part of the Hindu religion and therefore must be wrong, but they came to see the divisions caused by it as being evil in their own right and took to undermining it as a matter of social justice. They considered the stratification of the caste system as being contrary to Christian values, which proclaimed that all were equal in the eyes of God. These missionaries had some success in converting native people, of which those converted from among the Billavas formed the "first and largest group". Brückner describes the Billavas as being "the strongest group among the converts" and that, along with the Bunts, they were "the mainstays of the popular local religion, and the mission was probably induced by this target group to occupy itself with its practices and oral literature." Alagodi notes that the However, the conversion of Billavas to Christianity did not always run smoothly. The Basel missionaries were more concerned with the quality of those converted than with the quantity. In 1869 they rejected a proposition that 5000 Billavas would convert if the missionaries would grant certain favours, including recognition of the converts as a separate community within the church and also a dispensation to continue certain of their traditional practices. The missionaries took the view that the proposition was contrary to their belief in equality and that it represented both an incomplete rejection of the caste system and of Hindu practices. Alagodi has speculated that if the proposition had been accepted then "Protestant Christians would have been perhaps one of the largest religious communities in and around Mangalore today." A further barrier to conversion proved to be the Billava's toddy tapping occupation: the Basel Mission held no truck with alcohol, and those who did convert found themselves economically disadvantaged, often lacking both a job and a home. This could apply even if they were not toddy tappers: as tenant farmers or otherwise involved in agriculture, they would lose their homes and the potential beneficence of their landlords if they converted. The Mission attempted to alleviate this situation by provision of work, principally in factories that produced tiles and woven goods. Nireshvalya Arasappa—described by Kenneth Jones as "one of the few educated Billavas"—was one such person who looked to conversion from Hinduism as a means to advancement during the nineteenth century. Having initially examined the opportunities provided by Christian conversion, Arasappa became involved with the

Brahmo Samaj Brahmo Samaj ( ) is the societal component of Brahmoism, which began as a monotheistic reformist movement during the Bengal Renaissance. It was one of the most influential religious movements in India and made a significant contribution to ...

movement in the 1870s and he arranged for Brahmo missionaries to meet with his community. The attempt met with little success: the Billavas were suspicious of the Brahmo representatives, who wore western clothing and spoke in English whereas the Basel Missionaries had studied the local languages and produced a copy of the ''

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

'' in both Tulu and Kannada.

Kudroli Gokarnanatheshwara Temple

Ezhavas, a kindred community from

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

, were organised by

Narayana Guru Sree Narayana Guru () (20 August 1856 – 20 September 1928) was a philosopher, Spiritual Leader, spiritual leader and Social Reformer, social reformer in India. He led a Kerala reformation movement, reform movement against the injustice in t ...

in establishing social equality through his temple in Sivagiri. Using the same principles, Billavas established a temple. After the construction of the Kudroli

Gokarnanatheshwara Temple The Gokarnanatheshwara Temple, otherwise known as Kudroli Sri Gokarnanatha Kshetra, is in the Kudroli area of Mangalore in Karnataka, India. It was consecrated by Narayana Guru. It is dedicated to Gokarnanatha, a form of Lord Shiva. This temple ...

at Mangalore, Naryana Guru asked community leaders to work together for mutual progress by organising schools and industrial establishments; in accordance with his wishes, many Sree Narayana organisations have sprung up in the community.

Similar communities

Namadhari Naik Namadhari Naik, also known as Hale paika, Namadhari Naik, Namadhari Gowda, is a Hindu warrior community predominantly found in Uttara Kannada, Uttara Kannada of Karnataka State in India, and forms the numerical majority in the region. Traditio ...

Ezhava The Ezhavas, () also known as ''Thiyya'' or ''Tiyyar'' () in the Malabar region, and Chovar () in the south, are a community with origins in the region of India presently known as Kerala, where in the 2010s they constituted about 23% of the po ...

References

Notes Citations {{Narayana Guru Narayana Guru Mangalorean society Tuluva Social groups of Karnataka Brewing and distilling castes Indian castes South Indian communities Ethnic groups in India