A BRIEF SKETCH OF THE YERUKALA LANGUAGE- 93 



IV. 



A BRIEF SKETCH OF THE YERUKALA 

 LANGUAGE AS SPOKEN IN 

 RAJAHMANDRY. 1 



The Yerukalas do not seem to have any distinctive tribal or 

 national name. In conversation with each other they call 

 themselves "Kuluvuru," evidently from the Sanskrit " kula," 

 merely signifying " our people/ ' while to strangers they 

 speak of themselves as Yerukalavaru, a name most probably 

 given them by their Tehigu neighbors (Telugu oitibs') in 

 allusion to their supposed skill in palmistry, which they 

 practise as a means of livelihood. The Yeruka in question 

 was not able to say when his people settled in Rajahmandry. 

 He only knew that a long time ago they came from the west 

 and have been living here in the same place and in the same 

 way for several generations. For a livelihood they make 

 baskets, tell fortunes, and breed pigs for their own use and 

 for sale. They know nothing of agriculture or keeping 



1 This brief sketch was communicated to the Editor by Colonel R. M. 

 Macdonald, the Director of Public Instruction in Madras. The following is a 

 letter addressed to Colonel Macdonald by Mr. Metcalfe, Principal of the 

 Rajahmandry College : — 



" Sir, — During your visit to Rajahmandry a few months ago you were 

 somewhat interested in a little colony of Yerukalas, located in the suburbs, 

 and suggested that possibly an examination of the peculiar language spoken 

 by these isolated groups of an apparently distinct race might serve to deter- 

 mine their origin and the affinity they bear to the other races of Southern 

 India. Accordingly, on the occasion of a visit from the Rev. J. Cain, C.M.S., 

 who has bestowed much attention upon the Koi languages in the neighborhood 

 of Dommugadem, I arranged an interveiw between a Yeruka who has the repu. 

 tation of being the best-informed member of his community, and two of my 

 Assistants, Messrs. A. G-. Subramanyam Iyer, b.a., (Vernacular: Tamil) and 

 P. Strinivasa Rao Pantulu, b.a., (Vernacular : Telugu and Kanarese) who 

 under Mr. Cain's direction asked the man a series of questions, the answers 

 to which they have been at some pains to embody in the accompanying 

 account. This I think you will find interesting, and it may be of use for the 

 purpose of comparison with the results of similar enquiries conducted in 

 other localities at Guntur, for instance, where I hear there is a Yerukala 

 settlement.''* 



