![khmer unicode for samsung galaxy note 10.1 khmer unicode for samsung galaxy note 10.1](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/0UurTeXVDx0/maxresdefault.jpg)
The 1901 census classified them as tribals and the 1911 census denoted Badagas as Hindu animist tribals having a tribal mother tongue. The Badagas are classified as Backward Class in Tamil Nadu through constitutional orders. UDHAGAMANDALAM: They’ve been fighting to regain their lost status as tribals from the 1970s, and on Tuesday the Badagas, an indigenous community in the Nilgiris, filed a petition in the Madras High court to demand that they be included in the list of scheduled tribes. In fact, even the proverbs of the Badagas evoke this ethos – for e.g : “Hennogiri, mannogiri” (A daughter’s / sister’s curse will turn the soil barren). Since the Badagas have been mainly agriculturists, the Badaga women’s ethos is closely connected to the soil. They till the soil, harvest the produce, collect fire – wood and water, and tend the cows, in addition to looking after their families. Traditional Badaga women are very hardworking, and are the mainstay of the family and the community. Also, there is the practice of ‘hengava nadathodu” – a tradition of giving a daughter / sister material, emotional and moral support throughout her life. There is no stigma attached to widows in fact they are part of the mainstream community, and in the fore – front of auspicious functions like engagement and wedding coremonies. The high status of Badaga women perhaps derives from three main factors – the absence of a dowry – system, divorce by mutual consent, and widow-re-marriage. It is significant that though the Badagas are a patriarchal society, their women are held in high esteem. In fact, the chief festival of the Badagas, Hethai Habba, is centred around ‘Hethai’, a woman imbued with divine powers, and who was subsequently deified. The Badaga woman is the epitome of ‘Shakthi’, and many of their festivals, legends, ballads and folk – tales are centred around women. Burton says there used formerly to be a stone image of the slain tiger thereabouts.The title is only a rough translation of Badaga woman-hood, for there is no exact English translation for Sathiya – the nearest words are blessed or divine. The spot where the beast was buried is shown near the Pillaiyar temple to the south of Hulikal village, and is marked by three stones. It is named from the neighbouring village of Hulikal, or tiger's stone, and the story goes that this latter is so called because in it a Badaga killed a notorious man-eater which had long been the terror of the country side. Hulikal Drug, usually known as the Drug, is a precipitous bluff at the very end of the range which borders on the south the great ravine which Held necessary in sacrificial victims, and then slays, one after the other, those which have shown them- selves duly qualified. A Kurumba makes fire by friction and burns incense, throws sanctified water over the numerous goats brought to be sacrificed, to see if they will shiver in the manner always These keep in memory, it is said, a Badaga who was slain in combat with a tiger and annually a festival is held, at which new images are placed there, and vows are paid. Little shrine to Karairaya, consisting of a ruined stone hut surrounded by a low wall, within which are a tiny cromlech, some sacred water-worn stones, and sundry little pottery images representing a tiger, a mounted man, and some dogs. It is recorded, in connection with the legends of the Badagas, that "in the heart of the Banagudi shola, not far from the Dodduru group of cromlechs, is an odd Neighbourhood of these cromlechs for their temples, as for example, at Melur, Kakusi, H'laiuru, Tudur, and Jakatada.