Who We Are

. Each group had a leader and there were strict rules and regulations to be followed. Such leadership evolved into faith and later as religion. Such indigenous groups later on merged as a kingdom and later as empires. Amid all these evolutions, slowly crept in the era of statehood and nationhood. Democratic and Federal setups flourished and is being followed till date.

Amid all these years of evolution of mankind, many of these abo-original groups were dispersed in far fetched areas like terrains and mountains. The reason for these dispersals could be anything from fear of dominance by other groups, famine, natural disasters etc. Such groups largely lived in isolation from the rest of the world. Their language evolved into a distinct one, yet finding its roots in the universal language from which every other group and language evolved. Such groups that lived in isolation for may centuries, had their own set of cultural identity and administrative setup. Therefore, such groups or communities by and large retained their ancient cultural heritage, which strongly believed in Nature Worshipping.

We can see such a setup in the BADAGA community till date. Badagars are the abo-original inhabitants of the Nilgiri Hills and still retain qualities of an ancient tribe. Badagars (sometimes referred to as BURGHERS by some ancient scholars) are an ethnic group that inhabited the Nilgiri Hills for time untold by history. They lived in these mountains as nomads and later turned as herdsmen, rearing domestic animals (predominantly buffaloes). Milk and milk products were their staple food, supplemented by wild fruits and few wild millets.