Who are Nadavaras

Who are Nadavaras?




The social stratification system of Vedic times was based on the profession of people. And the Kshatriya caste might have been a blend of many diversified groups of people with varying backgrounds who joined armed forces at large. The ancient Indian ethnicities were assorted mixtures of Dravidian, Aryan, Mongolian, Greek, Kirat, Hun, Nishad, Scithian, Persian, Gandhara, Kamboja, Pashthun, Turkic and Mogul civilizations. In the last three hundred years British and to a much lesser extent Portuguese left imprints of the western culture which became the binding force that held diverse ethnicities of India together to form one secular nation. The philosophy of India is the combination of the Vedas of India, Upanishads of Nepal and Tibet, Ahura Mazda of Zoroastrianism, Islamic theology of Arabia and the Testaments of Judaism and Christianity. The people of India have been living with cultural and religious diversities for over two thousand years. The Kshatriyas of ancient India, because of the mobile nature of livelihood, were exposed to many traditions and cultures.

The "Nadavara Community" (Nadavara Samaj) is a typical Kshatriya specimen representing the fusion of multi-religious groups of divorce ethnicities of the subcontinent. Since the traceable Nadavara historic times, they belonged to the "martial heritage". Feudalism in India started in Rajputana after the conclusion of the Gupta Empire and spread in North India between the sixth and ninth centuries. Feudalism is an ancient political system in which the ruler of a kingdom distributed land to his noble men on the condition that they would provide military services in exchange. The noble men leased the land to peasants for annual payment of a portion of the harvested crop yield. The noble men collectively formed a defense force that protected the kingdom. It is highly probable that Nadavaras were feudal warriors since the medieval age. The name Nadavara was derived from Rashtrapati or Rashtrakuta around the ninth century during the Rashtrakuta rule of South India. In the long course of struggle for existence they carried the awareness of their heritage and endeavors of their ancestors. Nadavaras are acknowledged by most people for their participation in Satyagraha. They strongly opposed the alien British rule of India that lasted almost for two centuries. Nadavara is a well-educated, relatively well-to-do, moderately religious, and religion tolerant community settled in Ankola and Kumta of Uttara Kannada, Karnataka, India.

Salt Satyagraha of 1930s is a good example of Nadavara communal unity. The ages ranging from 25 to 50, two generations of Nadavaras joined the campaign of Satyagraha. The Nadavara Samaj behaved almost like a fraternity. Nadavara communal compassion was an illustration of esotericism. Socially, within the community, they presented themselves with egalitarian or democratic behavior. Early in the twentieth century, Nadavara community was an ethnic group similar to Jewish kibbutz which evolved through guarded, interactive and interpersonal behaviors. Constant suspicion of unexpected enemy attacks made Nadavaras to live cautiously in isolated locations. After migrating to Konkan, yet again they replicated their ancestral mode of habitat, which was to isolate themselves from other communities living in the region. Up till the middle of the twentieth century, Nadavaras lived in well-defined small hamlets secured by uneven rustic compound walls built out of laterite on the ridges of Sahyadri, riverside of Ganagavali and Aghnashini and water's edge of the Arabian Sea. The villages were congested with tightly built 50 to 200 homes. High density of populace living in close quarters and speaking adulterated unique dialect of Kannada gave rise to similar values which in turn strengthened unity within the villages. They were conventionally obedient to the community.

Nadavara old fashioned moral values were discretely distinguished by right and wrong without the connecting grey middle area. The pecking order of the family and also community was dependent on age. Even now the older members of the community are revered by the younger generations. Nadavara women were keen on raising a responsible stable family. The mothers taught community values to their kids. The basics of the Nadavara village culture and way of life were built upon the communal unity and safety. Even now a Nadavara village known as "Nadavara Koppa" is bunch of residences owned by the interconnected Nadavara families. The impelling force binding the community was acquired from the Kshatriya routines of the past. Face-to-face contact among Nadavaras was relatively relaxed, but with an outsider or stranger the discourse was cautiously reserved. Living in seclusion under the dire environment during the East India Company's occupation, the community became economically strangled and socially stagnated. After taking part in Satyagraha, Nadavaras became more social with the public sphere. Satyagraha gave Nadavaras an opportunity to meet and relax with many multiethnic people. Still the old-time villagers have the tendency to segregate among themselves.

Jainism was born of the Vedic philosophy along with Hinduism and Buddhism almost three millenniums ago. Its belief in the Vedic morals always matched with the codes of religious sacredness that Hinduism had to offer. Being part of the same philosophy, the Vedic religions mingled to live together harmoniously and also sibling rivalry like contests every so often flared up among them. The Nadavaras in the past followed Jainism. During the time of Keladi Nayakas and Mysore Sultanates, Nadavaras were split between two religions, Hinduism and Jainism. The earliest families that converted to Hinduism around the turn of the eighteenth century identified themselves as Jain Nadavaras, just to say they once belonged to Jainism. The nineteenth century Colonial gazetteer referred Nadavaras living in Malenadu as Jains and the ones living in Konkan were termed Nadagirs, Nadigs and Nadors which might be slangs in Konkani or Marathi. The village clerks (Shanaboga) who prepared village records for gazetteer prior to the independence of India in the South Konkan were Konkani Brahmins. Nadavaras in Hiregutti and Torke even today present themselves as belonging to Jain Nadavara kinship. Being a minority group of Jains during the early days in Malenadu, Nadavaras expressed a sense of unusual closeness among themselves. More than two centuries after the conversion to Hinduism, they still live with the similar minority complex. Even a remote relationship for them is very valuable. Although they are meeting for the very first time, humble expression accompanied by loud informal speech of greeting becomes their body language to show the close communal intimacy. The Kannada dialect used by Nadavaras has odd accent which markedly differs from the mainstream Kannada. The unfamiliar figure of speech even confuses the Kannada speaking people around them. The rhetoric consists of unusual metaphors and hyperboles. Thick accent and unusual structure of the Nadavara Kannada is possibly influenced by an unknown distinct language.

Equality is politically correct concept. Still practicing equality in a world filled with irregular settings of wisdom, economy and social standings is challenging. There is no issue more important than social equality and communal unity for Nadavaras. Yet prying into private lives of community members is a habitual bent in their mannerism. However, slanderous accusation against a community member is treated like social crime. The awareness of independence and equality naturally prevails in self-regulated and self-reliant close communities. In a subtle manner, their mode of life is supportive of women's emancipation and gender equality. Both men and women participate in social, cultural, and political activities with equal interests. In a Nadavara family, a girl is entitled to education, and allowed to make decisions just like her brother. Familial relationships in the Nadavara culture for sons and daughters are somewhat based on equality, but not so long ago the gender inequality existed in ancestral property distribution. Even now among some Nadavaras only sons have the entitlement to parental property. The women shoulder most of the domestic responsibilities including the education of the children. Admirably, they are almost equally educated and are as competent as their counterparts.

The unique physical and behavioral traits of both men and women are shaped from their combative warrior ancestry. Nadavaras even now try to practice endogamy. But of late the marriages outside the ethnic bounds are becoming more frequent. The purpose of the old-fashioned endogamy was to preserve the Kshatriya qualities of ancestors. The soldierly spirit is warrior's egotism to save the country or to become martyr which is distinct from the natural self-centered ego. The battlefield ego of the past is still imbedded in Nadavara moral fiber. The British rulers classified Nadavara community under the martial race and tried to recruit them to the Colonial army. Nadavaras loved their freedom. They believed that serving the alien British rulers was disgraceful. For the Nadavaras Vijayanagara, perhaps the future looked somewhat fragile as anything could happen in the next crusade. The risky livelihood made them extraverted by nature. The insecurity of life was disguised by the display of coolness in social settings. Occasionally even now they are swayed by haughtiness and become oddly fixed. A landlord of Bhavikeri, disputed over a coconut tree with his neighbor for eleven years (1911 to 1922). The coconut tree died before the feud between families was settled in a court in Bombay. The landlord had to bear the total responsibility of the expenses, Rs.18000, which included compensation to the defendant. In settling this saga filled with egotism, he bankrupted his family and liquidated most of his land to repay the loan. During those years, it was a big bundle of money. At times the sudden outbursts of Nadavara youths annoyed the other communities living in the region, but still they were tolerated because of their supportive nature in general.

Nadavara women were good storytellers. Usually elderly women told mythological stories and indigenous folklores to young children in evenings. The narrations mostly portrayed the bravery and heroism of characters from the Hindu epics. The military occupation was their livelihood for many centuries and they were reluctant to take up any other line of work up until the Colonial control of Uttara Kannada in 1800AD. It's hard to pinpoint when exactly Nadavaras became agriculturists. Perhaps after Haidar Ali conquered Uttara Kannada in 1762 many Nadavara families started amassing land. But for certain, they learnt the rudiments of rice farming after the Colonial Uttara Kannada. They became adapted to cattle breeding and raising. Bullock carts became standard vehicle of transportation of goods and people. Due to the limitations imposed by the British on the martial sects, Nadavaras embarked on land cultivation. Gradually by the turn of the twentieth century, when the Nadavara landholdings were shrinking and financial conditions were declining, they started manually laboring in their own farms. Even under dire circumstances, they refused to labor on someone else's farm. According to the unofficial communal statute of the Nadavara community, working as a laborer for wages was forbidden like begging and prostitution. They tried to be self-sufficient. Pride and arrogance were obvious in their mannerism.

By the mid nineteenth century Nadavaras lived in twenty-four hamlets situated on the banks of Gangavali and Aghanashini rivers. The hamlets were isolated to the extent no other community domiciled anywhere close to their neighborhood. Abstractly it was a sort of derivative of fortification that was practiced by the warriors. Like the secluded military bases of present, isolation of Kshatriyas had been always a precautionary step against adversarial attacks. Such peculiar behavior may perhaps be looked upon as an innately acquired apprehensive nature of Nadavaras. Their villages have evolved to accommodate people from other communities with relaxed self-protective protocols. After settling in Konkan, they donated gold to temples and land to artisans, manual workers, and Harijans. However, when infuriated or oppressed, they responded impulsively without fear. The ancestral crusader-like temper is genetically imbedded in the fiber of the community. That very quality led Nadavaras to actively participate in the freedom movement of India. Till the first half of the twentieth century, Nadavaras were mainly landowners and farmers. In the beginning of the twentieth century, the community produced many primary school teachers that became the springboard for the subsequent generations to further advance in education. Since 1940s, they have been diversifying their interests toward education and trade. By the end of the twentieth century barely 10 to 15% of Nadavaras were solely dependent on farming.

Seafood more or less has become the staple food in Nadavara diet and occasionally prepare chicken and mutton dishes. Two and a half centuries ago, prior to migrating to Konkan they were resolute vegetarians. Increasingly they became "fisharians" after adopting Hinduism and also in Konkan fish was available in abundance. Fishing or hunting in the evenings became trendy in some villages. The expanded dietary menu gradually made them more interested in non-vegetarian food. The fish curry became very popular around the end of the nineteenth century. After moving to Konkan they concocted a new genre of non-vegetarian dishes. Aromatic coconut was used extensively and especially in the fish and chicken curry. The non-vegetarian food not so long ago was cooked outside the living quarters. Nadavara cuisine did not spread beyond their villages; their cooking was never promoted even in the local restaurants. They are fond of hosting friends and relatives for a chicken or fish curry fiesta; the mutton dishes are not generally served.

Unlike the ancestral conservative school of thinking, the contemporary Nadavara beliefs are frequently rationalized to facilitate the short-term goals. In the mid-sixties, to have better access to job opportunities, Nadavaras relentlessly appealed to the Government of Karnataka for fifteen years to classify them under the economically depressed category like the other agricultural communities of Karnataka. Some Nadavaras argued to the extent that Nadavaras should be given concessions in the government job market because of the sacrifices made during Satyagraha. In 1967 Ramakrishna Hedge then the Finance Minister of Karnataka ironically responded, "If the Nadavara community is economically deprived, then who in Karnataka is not?" However, in late seventies when Devaraj Urs was the chief minister, Nadavaras got what they bargained for but according to them the change didn't reward them as expected. Did they anticipate too much?


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