Koraga people
A Koraga tribesman, ca. 1909.
|
|
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 16,376 (2011 census) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 India
|
|
| Karnataka | 14,794 |
| Kerala | 1,582 |
| Languages | |
| Koraga language | |
The Koraga are a tribal community found mainly in the Dakshina Kannada, Udupi districts of Karnataka and the Kasaragod district of Kerala, south India. These areas in Karnataka, are altogether often referred to as Tulu Nadu. They are also found in small numbers in adjoining districts of Uttara Kannada, Shimoga and Kodagu. The Koraga are classified by the Government of India as a Scheduled Tribe.
The Koraga, who numbered 16,071 according to the 2001 census of India, have their own language, classified as an independent Dravidian language, which is strongly influenced by Tulu, Kannada, Malayalam, languages commonly found in their area.
The 1901 census report noted the Koraga as being a lowly tribe of basket-makers and labourers, some of whom were employed as scavengers. They remain today among the untouchables, being considered as ritually polluted by Hindus, but there have in the past been claims that they are of Chandala stock. Their folklore claims Hubbashika to have been one of their chiefs but the Kadamba narrative asserts a Chandala origin, that they are the descendants of the offspring of a Brahman woman and a Shudra father.Edgar Thurston quotes M. T. Walhouse, who wrote in 1875 that this narrative was recorded by Brahmans and that, together with the Kapata, the Koraga were the lowest of the fifteen Chandala groups. However, Thurston thinks it probable that they were in fact the aboriginals of the region who were dispersed, dispossessed and turned into slaves by the influx of Aryans from the north of India.
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