File:Castes and tribes of southern India. Assisted by K. Rangachari (1909) (14780284861).jpg

Identifier: castestribesofso03thuruoft (find matches)
Title: Castes and tribes of southern India. Assisted by K. Rangachari
Year: 1909 (1900s)
Authors: Thurston, Edgar, 1855-1935 Rangachari, K
Subjects: Caste -- India Madras (Presidency) Ethnology -- India Madras (Presidency) India -- Social conditions
Publisher: Madras Government Press
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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d fromthe Hindustani kori (sly), korri nigga (sly look) becomingcorrupted into Korcha. Whenever this name was appliedto them, they had evidently learnt their calling thoroughly,and the whole family, in whatever direction its branchesspread, established a reputation for cunning in snaringanimals or birds, or purloining other peoples goods,until to-day their names are used for the purpose ofinsulting abuse in the course of a quarrel. Thus abelligerant might call the other a thieving Yerukala, orask, in tones other than polite, if he belongs to a gang ofKorchas. In the Tamil country, a man is said to kura-kenju, or cringe like a Korava, and another allusion totheir dishonesty is kurapasangu, to cheat like a Korava.The proverb Kuruvans justice is the ruin of the family refers to the endless nature of their quarrels, the decisionof which will often occupy the headmen for weeks together. In communicating among themselves, the Koravas andYerukalas speak a corrupt polyglot, in which the words
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KORAVA. 447 KORAVA derived from several languages bear little resemblanceto the original. Their words appear to be taken chieflyfrom Tamil, Telugu, and Canarese. A short vocabu-lary of the Yerukala language has been published by theRev. J. Cain.* The Yerukalas call this language Oodra,which seems to stand for gibberish or thieves slang,or, as they explain, something very hard to understand.Oriya or Oodra is the language of the districts of Ganjamand Orissa. The word Oriya means north, and the factthat the Yerukalas call their language Oodra wouldseem to confirm their belief that they are a northerntribe. The wanderers always know more than one lan-guage colloquially, and are able to make themselvesunderstood by the people of the country through whichthey may be passing. Those who have settled in villagesinvariably speak the language of the locality. Whentalking among themselves, they call a Brahman ThannikoKoravan, or the bathing Korava. They consider theBrahmans to be more cunning th

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