Muduga (ISO-639-3 code: udg)

Population

The Muduga tribes are referred as Muduvas in early references and in censes reports. According to 1971 censes the whole population of the Mudugar is 4575. Of these, 890 Mudugars are in Tamilnadu and 3865 in Kerala state. As per the information available in the Wikipedia, there are 1274 families and 4668 population of Mudugars community. The population consists of 2225 males and 2443 females, registering the family size as 3.66 and sex ratio of 1000: 1000: 1098. Mudugar community is settled in Palakkad District.

It is believed that Muduvas previously lived in the plains but driven to the hills by the Mohammaden invaders towards the end of 18th century. Thurston (1906) found a mixture of west coast and east cost cultures in them. According to another tradition they left Madurai and this migration took place in the 14th century.

Culture and occupation

The man and women are at liberty to mix with others. The Muduva marries the daughter of his maternal uncle. The elders are not taking any interest in arrange matrimonial alliance. The choice is left to the girl and boy. The boy generally conveys his desire to the girl through his friends.

Mudugas are agriculturists. Most of them do not have own lands. But some of them have their own cardamom estate. They live in the midst of forest. Each family has five or six cows or buffaloes. Their hunting methods are primitive. The conventional weapons, bow and arrows, stone-bow and blow pipe are found in their huts but now they are using guns for hunting. Mudugas believe that originally they were cultivators and they practiced hunting due to pressure of circumstances.