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Jain Kurumbers : - An Account of
their life and Habits*
by M.D. Raghvan B.A., M.R.A.S., F.R.A.I.
During March of last year I was deputed by the Madras Government Museum to accompany the Anthropological Research Expidition headed by Dr. Baron Von Eickstedt, sent to India by the State Research Institutes of Leipzig in Germany, to facilitate his tour to the Malabar District and to help him in his study of the primitive tribes of Malabar, including the aboriginal tribes of the Wynad hills. The expedition afforded me splendid opportunities to study the hill tribes under ideal conditions. 2. Wynad, as its name denotes, is the land of forests, being derived from the two words Vana-Nad, which in course of time came to be pronounced Wayanad. Many and varied are the tribes that have found a shelter and a home in the mountain fastnesses and dense forests of the Wynad. The diversity of its tribes puzzles the on-looker as he takes a bird's-eye view of its diverse castes and tribes assembled at the great festival of Vallur Kavu, situated in the wilds of Manantoddy, one of the greatest of the shrines of Wynad, to which flock the numerous hill tribes. The festival to the Goddess Bhagavati which takes place in March of every year is perhaps the greatest event in the Wynad, which amply repays a visit. Bhagavati is worshipped here in three forms, as Vana Durga or the Durga of the forests, as Jala Durga in the adjoining
* This article was first published in the 'MAN IN INDIA' - A
Quarterly Record of Anthropological Science with Special Reference to India, edited by Rai Bahadur Sarat Chandra Roy, Vol. IX, Ranchi, 1929.
DAT U
IME - Fasteae, 2005 [
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