MANl'AI. OF THK NILAGIRI DISTRICT. 



277 



tore iu October of that year, on the 24th day of which month he CHAP. XII. 

 was at Devanaikenkota, a fort on the north side of the Bhavani, r^^t 

 a little above its junction with Moyar, and the head-quarters of Histoky. 

 the taluk to which the Nilagiris proper belonged. 



" It was built," he says, " by Dana, a Nayaka or Polygar dependent Dr. Bucha- 

 on Madura. * * * His descendants were deprived of it by Bal ^^^'^'"'^^•°°- 

 Raja, another dependent on the princes of Madura. From him, or at 

 least a descendant of the same name, it was taken by the Raja of 

 Mysore, and from its having been long dependent on that family, by 

 far the greater part of its inhabitants speak the language of Karnata." 



The disturbed state of the country as well as the relations of 

 the hill-people are illustrated by the following occurrence : — 



" About two months ago thirty or forty Nairs from Walnad, or 

 from Nelleala, as it is here called, persuaded the chief of one of the 

 hill villages subject to the Company to join them with sixty or seventy 

 men. This united force came down to the low country and plundered 

 three villages. A hundred candashara,^ supported by a few sepoys, 

 were sent out ; and after an engagement, in which nobody was killed, 

 took the chief and seven men prisoners. Of these three were Nairs. 

 About ten years ago these banditti made some disturbance among the 

 hill villages, but never before ventured down to the low country." 



Then follows the first reference that I have met with to the 

 Badagas : — 



" Honey and wax," he writes, " are gathered by a caste called 

 Budugar, who inhabit the hilly country between this and Malabar, and 

 which lies south from Nelleala or the Wainad of Major Rennell. 

 They live in small villages like the Eriligarxi,, and not only use the 

 cotu-cadu cultivation already described, but have also ploughs. The 

 quantity of honey and wax which they procure is considerable, and 

 they pay nothing for it, there being no forest renter in the district." 



On the following day, the 25th October, the unwearied doctor 

 " took a long and fatiguing walk to the top of the western hills ^ 

 in order to see a camhay, or village inhabited by Eriligaru." ^ 



1 I find reference to these incursions in a letter from the Board of Revenue 

 to Lord Clive in June 1803, which is curious as containing the first reference to 

 the Todanad I have met with. It runs, " In consequence of the Hoblis of Devaroya- 

 patam and Totanad having been threatened with invasion by the insurgents in 

 Wainad, the former has been deserted by its inhabitants, and the Collector has 

 found it necessary to detach peons for their protection." Mr. Garrow, the letter 

 farther states, on the outbreak of the rebellion in Malabar, engaged a band of 117 

 peons for the protection of this part of the Coimbatore District. In the following 

 year (1804) the Government sanctioned the entertainment of 100 peons to protect 

 the Hoblis of Devardyapatnam against invasions from the rebel Pyche Rdja of 

 Wainad. 



2 The spot was probably near Arakdd, below Rangasdmi's Peak, on the old 

 track from Devanaikenkota to Kdtagiri. 



3 Dr. Buchanan (Chapter IX) also refers to the Tddas, but he was evidently 

 misinformed about them, not only placing them in the ranges south of the 

 Nilagiris, but as cultivating with the plough and paying rent for their fields. 



