Genealogy of a Kodava: Part I
The Kodavas
In the ancient past the Kodavas (also called Coorgs) were freeholder agriculturists and militiamen. Most of them were farmers who owned the soil that they tilled, not Jamindars (landlords) or serfs (tenant peasants). They also formed the militia army under the Rajas (kings) and the Nayakas (barons). Kodagu, or Coorg, was independent of the larger empires and kingdoms like those of the Mughal and of Mysore. Before Kodagu came under it's Rajas, of the Haleri dynasty, it was divided among the local Nayakas. One celebrated ballad speaks of the fight between Kullachanda Chondu and Keyyondira Appayya. Chondu was a veteran warrior of Ammathi naad (a naad was a shire comprising of a few villages) who defeated the other naads' warriors and forced them to pay regular tribute to him. However he found his match in Keyyondira Appayya in Kadiyat naad. Appayya was a young boy of Arpattu village who outwitted the veteran by momentarily blinding him with sand during a combat and timely beheading him. Thereafter he took over Chondu's status as warrior champion in Kodagu. He was called Periya Moli ('Revered Elder') until his death. Every year during the annual temple festival at the Arpattu village temple he wore a white Kuppya (traditional robe) and was carried in a palanquin (that originally belonged to Chondu) by palanquin bearers. This tradition was followed by his successors as well until recent times. These were the tales of the brave lands of Kodagu.
The forefathers of the Kodavas hardly ever travelled out of their villages; they were quiet farmers, the men would see some excitement when they hunted game in the woods or served in the Rajas' army for some days or months of the year. Only on trade or war would the Coorgs venture out or would other people enter Kodagu. The mud roads taken by the oxen carts were the only means of travel. The women would stay within their homes not travelling beyond their family farms. When visitors rarely came home the women were confined to the inner rooms from where they could look out through the inner windows into the sitting room.
Some people like to claim that the Kodavas were of mixed European, probably even British, descent, but most Kodavas lived in the villages and hardly knew a word of any other language, leave alone having seen an European even once all their entire lifetime. The Kodavas have always been known to be relatively good-looking. When Hyder Ali invaded Kodagu in the eighteenth century (nearly a century before Kodagu came under the British Raj), he had ordered his men to behead the Kodava warriors but when they brought the heads of the Coorg men he noticed how handsome they were. So he quickly put an end to the massacre. Richter writes in 1870 that the headmen of Kodagu were very antagonistic and conservative; Kodagu was cut off from the outside world under them and under the Rajas. The region gradually opened up when Western Education and good roads were introduced.
The earliest mention of the Kodavas is in an inscription dated 1174 CE found in Periyapatna which stated that Pemma Virappa led 'Ella nadina Kodagaru' (Coorgs from all naads) in war. Being a martial hill people it wouldn't seem strange that the Kodavas have unique dress and food habits. The martial men of India, be they Punjabi, Rajput or Maratha, dress similar to the Coorg men. The hill women found in parts of Himachal Pradesh dress similar to the Coorg women. The roots of these dress habits can be finally traced to the original people of West Asia and of the Caucasus mountains. Much of the Coorg culture and religion is akin to that of coastal Southwestern India - the Canara and the Malabar regions. This was the neighbourhood of Kodagu with whom the Coorgs traded and from where the gods and priests of Kodagu arrived. By religion, the Kodavas were of a Hindu sectary.
Genealogy of a Kodava: Part II
Family Tree
Great Grandparents
My family tree can be traced to the clans of my eight Kodava great grandparents - my paternal grandfather's father Mookonda of Bilugunda village, my paternal grandfather's mother Madappanda, my paternal grandmother's father Uddapanda, my paternal grandmother's mother Pemmanda, my maternal grandfather's father Arpattu Mukkatira, my maternal grandfather's mother Bonda Mukkatira, my maternal grandmother's father Kotera and my maternal grandmother's mother (my earliest known matrilineal ancestor) Manduvanda. There are two Mookonda clans in Kodagu, one being the Mookonda of Devanagiri village near Virajpet town in Edenaalnaad and the other being the Mookonda of Bilugunda village near Ammathi town in Ammathi naad. My patrilineal ancestors were of the Bilugunda Mookonda clan.
Rajas of Kodagu
The Rajas of Kodagu ruled the province until 1834 (this digression is necessary for the account below). There were three kings and one queen of this line in the early decades of the nineteenth century. Dodda Vira Rajendra (Vira Rajendra the elder) was a warrior king who had allied with the British East India Company and fought Tipu Sultan. He was not just a man of the sword but of letters as well, being a historian who chronicled the reign of his dynasty in a book. He was succeeded by his daughter Devammaji the only queen of the dynasty and a mere child. She reigned for only two years when she abdicated the throne in favour of her paternal uncle, Linga Rajendra II, the younger brother of Dodda Vira Rajendra. Linga Rajendra was a great game hunter, he ruled during times of peace. He was known for having renovated the palace and for constructing the Omkareshwara temple, unique because it is built in the Indo-Sarcenic style. Like his brother he too wrote a book, called the Hukum Nama that laid down rules for his officers. Chikka Vira Rajendra (Vira Rajendra the younger), his son who succeeded him, however got into trouble with the British East India Company. Kodagu was then annexed and the reign of the Haleri dynasty of Kodagu came to an end.
Chenna Basava
Linga Rajendra and his chief queen Devaki had two daughters: Muddammaji and Devammaji (not to be confused with the daughter of Dodda Vira Rajendra and queen). Devaki was born into the Palanganda family of Kantha Moornaad. In the court of Linga Rajendra was a palace official, the Head Munshi (Chief Accountant) of the Treasury under the Dewan (Principal Minister). His name was Mukkatira Muddayya and he was a native of Bonda village. He had two younger brothers Boppayya and Ipanna (Aiyappanna). Muddayya was a man who was projected to be the future Dewan of Kodagu. Ipanna was a great marksman and horseman whose skill caught the eye of the Raja. The Raja, a sharpshooter himself, once tested him by ordering him to shoot down a bird perched upon the back of a distant bison. The Coorg successfully passed the challenge and pleased the Raja. Later the Raja had him race between Madikeri and Bhagamandala on horseback in record time. In 1819 Ipanna was renamed Channa Basava and married to Devammaji. They were given the palace and estate of Appangala village.
In 1820 Linga Rajendra died and Chikka Vira Rajendra the half-brother of Devammaji became the next Raja. As Chikka Vira Rajendra was a very young man (who didn't have children until after a decade), his brother-in-law, Channa Basava, was made his heir. A dispute rose between them both in the early 1830s. Some supporters had wanted Channa Basava made the Raja. As a result of this Devammaji and Channa Basava were put under house arrest in Appangala. Fearing for their lives the couple were aided by Muddayya to escape from Kodagu into Periyapatna in Mysore one night. Eventually they were pensioned and settled at Bangalore. This enraged Chikka Vira Rajendra who upon learning of their escape had Muddayya killed. In 1834 Chikka Vira Rajendra was desposed and Kodagu came under British East India. Years later Channa Basava died and was succeeded by his wife and son who lived at Appangala in Kodagu. His daughters were given in marriage to Palegaras (barons) in Mysore. Devammaji lived for a hundred years to die in the early years of the twentieth century. The Mukkatira family presently at Appangala is most probably the descendants of Devammaji's only son.
Maternal Relatives (Mukkatiras of Bonda and Arpattu)
Meanwhile the Bonda Mukkatira family lived on in the Ammathi naad region. One direct descendant of Muddayya was one Aiyappa who married a lady of the Kodandera clan and had only daughters. One of those daughters was Muddamma who was married to Mukkatira Belliappa of Arpattu. This gentleman was a schoolmaster who knew English and taught at Kodlipet School. The couple moved from Arpattu village and settled down in Vontiangadi village in Ammathi naad. The couple had four sons, of whom only two survived into adulthood, and three daughters, the eldest was married to a Pemmanda gentleman of Kadnur, the second to a Puggera gentleman, who was the Deva Thakka of Bythurappa (Vayathur Mahadeva temple) for a while, and the third to a Kabbachira gentleman. The second of the two sons was my maternal grandfather Mukkatira Mandanna, an army man who had seen action during the Indo-China War.
During the guerrilla war against the Mysore Sultans who occupied Kodagu the villagers of Arpattu and Palangala were outnumbered and pursued by the Sultan's soldiers. They took refuge in the temple of Malethirke in Kadiyat naad. The soldiers were scaling that heavily forested hill towards the temple at it's summit when a swarm of jungle bees attacked them. The soldiers fled the place and the Kodavas who came out from their refuge found the abandoned camp downhill. Here they helped themselves to the cache of arms of the enemy and went on to successfully fight away their pursuers. Among those guerrilla warriors were the Mukkatira brothers of Arpattu village. The Arpattu Mukkatira Ain-mane (large ancestral homestead) is distinct as it has two Mundu-mane (central courtyards). Many more brave soldiers came from that village. Three gunners from Arpattu village died in the twentieth century Indo-China War.
Paternal Relatives (Mookondas of Bilugunda/Bonda, thier neighbours and relatives)
Bonda was a village of 300 families before it was split into the smaller village of Nalvathokkalu (meaning 'forty clans') and the larger village of Bilugunda (there was a third smaller village Pudikote as well), hence it was called Bonda Moonooru Okka. One of the original 300 families was the Bonda Mukkatira and another was the Bilugunda Mookonda. The Bonda Mukkatira live in what is today Nalvathokkalu. They were the Deva thakkas (temple managers) of the Bilugunda Bhadrakali village temple. The Bilgunda Mookonda were the Ur Patela (hereditary village headmen) of the Bilgunda village. The neighbours of the Mookonda in Bilgunda village were the Iynanda, the Nellammakkada, the Mandepanda and others. Five brothers who lived in the nineteenth century gave rise to the present day Bilugunda Mookonda clan. One of these five brothers had four sons, one of them was named Madayya (pronounced ‘Maadayya’) had two sons, Cariappa (pronounced ‘Kaaryappa’) and Kushalappa (‘Kushaalappa’). Mookonda Cariappa was the last Patela of Bilugunda. Mookonda Kushalappa Senior became the elected Sarpanch of Bilugunda.
In the past, brothers and their respective families would live together as a joint family under the same roof. In Kadnur lived such brothers of the Pemmanda house. One had two sons and a daughter while another had an only daughter. A son of the first brother became the renowned South Indian police chief Rao Bahadur Pemmanda Monnappa. The daughter of the other brother was my great grandmother. She married a gentleman of the Uddapanda family of Ammathi. They had two daughters and a son, the son was later a police chief. The younger daughter was married to a Kuppachira gentleman. The elder daughter, my grandmother, was married to my grandfather Mookonda Kushalappa Senior.
Genealogy of a Kodava: Part III
Genographic Project
The National Geographic, IBM and the Waitt Family Foundation support the Genographic Project. It traces back the roots of the entire human race to South Central Africa around 50,000 years before period. You can call the first man Manu or Adam based on your religion, but science proves that he had lived in this region of Africa. From there some of them passed through the horn of Africa and Egypt into Eurasia. These early people went on to populate the rest of the world outside the African continent over thousands of years.
I had participated in the Genographic Project last year. Accordingly I bought the kit from them online. I scrapped the inside of my mouth with the small scalpel they provided, placed the scalpel with the saliva from the inside of my cheeks in a preservative and mailed it over to the Project people. A few weeks later I got to see the results; it said that my Y-chromosome was haplogroup R1a1 M17 (sub clade R1a1a, M198). This is a common gene found among speakers of the Indo-European languages (the language family which includes Sanskrit, Persian, Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarathi, Marathi, Konkani and others). In India many North Indians and a few South Indians carry this gene.
People perceive this to be like the normal DNA medical tests but it isn't. The Y-chromosome in the case of men and the mitochondrial DNA (mDNA) in the case of women can be traced from the cheek cell samples. Y-chromosome is inherited from a father to a son and is absent in women. Likewise mDNA is passed on from a mother to a daughter and is not found in men. Sometimes rarely between several generations a gene would mutate. The carrier of this mutated gene would pass it on to their descendants; this marker helps distinguish the carrier's gene from that of other people. Thus an individual's ancestry thousands of years ago can be traced while nothing about their recent history can be determined.
My earliest genetic ancestor was M168 (the earliest man to have existent descendants, all men today; he was labelled M168 after the gene identifier by scientists) who lived 50,000 years ago and whose people used stone tools and knew cave painting art. Due to drought, he and his people, the ancestors of the Eurasians, moved out of their homeland and traveled north. They followed good weather and the animals that they hunted. Humans of this age became intelligent and knew the use of language.
M168's descendant M89 (the ancestor of all ethnic non-Africans) is the next known genetic marker. He was born 45,000 years ago on Semi-arid grass plains and is the ancestor of 90-95 per cent of the non-Africans. His people, the Middle Eastern Clan, moved through the Middle East following herds of wild buffaloes and antelopes. They traveled through Iran into Central Asia. Humans numbered around a mere ten thousand. Some 40,000 years ago M9 was born among his descendants who moved eastward. Their march was blocked by the massive Himalaya Mountains to the Northwest of India. Here in the region called the Pamir knot the people split up and took different directions. A part of this Eurasian clan moved north into the Central Asian Steppes in what is today Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Southern Siberia.
Here some 35,000 years before period was born M45, the next distinct marker. Over the ages rainfall reduced in the region and so the herds of large game moved north. The seasoned hunters along with M45 followed these herds out of the region. They sewed their animal skin clothes by means of bone needles. They learnt to build makeshift tents of animal-shelters and to make microlithic weapons. M45's descendant M207 began to move out of his ancestor's territory and his descendants split to populate Europe and South Asia. One man born in the M207 clan was M173 who lived around 30,000 years ago. He moved out of the Steppes of Central Asia westwards toward Europe. His descendants settled the fringes of Europe and were more skilled in the use of stone tools and his people used jewellery as well. The humans numbered around a lakh or so at this time worldwide. Some 10,000-15,000 years ago M17 was born in the M173 clan. The human population worldwide rose to a few million during this period.
The people of the M17 (also called R1a1) clan gave rise to the Indo-European languages as these people spread so did their languages. The Kurgans of southern Russia and Ukraine were nomadic horsemen who were the first known people to speak an Indo-European language and to carry the M17 (R1a1) gene. Ancient Warriors like the Scythians carried this gene. Indo-European speakers moved across Eurasia, they moved into North India on one side and Europe on the other. Some five to ten per cent of the Western Asians carry this M17 gene. Forty per cent of the people of the Steppes, thirty five per cent of Farsi speaking Eastern Iranians and thirty five per cent of the Hindi-speaking North Indians carry this gene as well. Only ten per cent of the Dravidian speakers carry the M17 gene. Here the genetic trail ends.
Men of a Coorg family (Courtesy: Richter, 1870).
Nothing else can be determined from the gene about what happened to my ancestors in the last 10,000 years. R1a1 (M17) is hence the last inherited mutation. This shows that the Kodavas were most likely an Indo-European speaking people who underwent a language shift after settling down in South India hence becoming a Dravidian-speaking people. For nearly two thousand years the Kodavas have lived in Kodagu, having settled the region in prehistoric times. Thus ends the genetic trail of a Kodava.
