Convener of the United Kodava Organisation (UKO), Kokkalemada Manju Chinnappa on last Tuesday submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah through the Additional Deputy Commissioner Prasana Kumar, urging him to take steps to preserve Kodava heritage sites.
In the memorandum UKO has urged Siddaramaiah to take necessary steps to bring the necessary changes in the RTC’s to ensure that Kodava Heritage sites are in the names of the concerned ‘Thakka’s'(Spokespersons/ Family heads)
Chinnappa informed that UKO had started the campaign to save heritage sites in the district from the ‘Kadagadal Mandh’.
Chinnappa further alleged that over the years all the traditional places of Kodavas namely Mandh, Ambala , Gomalas and such public meeting places , were either encroached or taken over by the government.
He said that the history of the Kodava’s has been traced back to nearly 4000 years by research scholar J Cogging Brown. In an article in Asiatic Society of Bengal Journal dated February 15, 1968, Brown mentioned that he had found an axe near Madikeri which was nearly 8,000 to 10,000 years old and belonged to the inhabitants of Kodagu. Brown had said these inhabitants must be Kodavas, Chinnappa noted.
He said that in coming days the campaign will be conducted across the district as memorandum will be submitted to the district administration with suitable details and records too. In the first protest held at Kadagal Mandh on Monday, people from seven villages belonging to the mandh took part and staged a programme explaining the need and to protect and preserve the tradition for coming generations. He said his organisation plans to take up an anthropological survey of the Kodavas soon.
Courtesy: Coffeeland News
Good to know UKO! Good first step, if this is the one! When one man claiming to belong to Haleri dynasty cud put up a dogged fight to get his rights, collectively with unselfish and proper leadership uko cud b some body to reckon with!!