C

oorg, or Kodagu has been variously described as, ‘the Scotland of India’ and ‘Kashmir of the South’. Certainly not without good reason.

This delightfully mountainous area and ‘Land of the Cauvery’, stands 3,900 feet above sea level. The word ‘Kodagu’ literally means ‘inside west’, meaning, ’situated to the west’. The topography rises, as it were from the plains, as one travels toward Kodagu. The vegetation becomes denser, the air cooler and the earth pushes upward as hills, sentinel-like, guard the land; vast areas of wet lands and semi-deciduous scrub and evergreen forests abut plantations of coffee and spices that make Coorg famous.

Sardar Vallabhai Patel, ’the Iron man of India’, who unified Free India, said of Coorg in the Indian Parliament in 1949, that it was the only State where there was ‘Rama Raj’. Coorg, at the time was an independent State of India. The Coorgs opposed Hyder Ali and Tippu Sultan by siding with the Rajas and the British.

Kodavas, or Coorgs, the main ethnic group co-habit the land with Gowdas, Brahmins, Moplas and Christians. Culturally and physically distinct from other races of South India, the Coorgs are traditionally ancestor worshippers. This is evident in the absence of gods, priests or rituals in festivals and functions. Their acquiline features cast them apart, and the Kodava man is regarded as almost handsome, while the women, fair complexioned and beautiful, stand out as unusual for South Indians.

Hailing from a tradition of martial history, the Coorgs fought to defend the homeland from foreign and internal intrusions. Many fought in both World Wars and even today have a preference for the armed forces.

Two of Coorg’s most famous sons, Field Marshal K M. Kariappa of the Rajput Regiment and General K S. Thimayya of the Kumaon Regiment, distinguished themselves on the world stage.

Honouring their martial spirit, the British exempted the Kodavas from possessing licences for light rifles within Coorg District.