Kota people (India)

Kotas

Kota women in traditional clothes circa 1870s
Total population
1203 (1974)
Languages
Kota language, Tamil
Religion
Kota Religion, Hinduism
Related ethnic groups
Toda people and other Dravidian speakers

Kotas, also Kothar or Kov by self-designation, are an ethnic group who are indigenous to the Nilgiri Mountains range in Tamil Nadu, India. They are one of the many tribal people indigenous to the region. (Others are the Todas, Irulas and Kurumbas). Todas and Kotas have been subject to intense anthropological, linguistic and genetic analysis since the early 19th century. Study of Todas and Kotas has also been influential in the development of the field of anthropology. Numerically Kotas have always been a small group, not exceeding 1,500 individuals spread over seven villages for the last 160 years.^[1] They have maintained a lifestyle as jacks-of-all-trades such as potters, agriculturalist, leather workers, carpenters, and blacksmiths, and as musicians for other groups. Since the British colonial period they have had greater educational opportunities. This has improved their socio-economic status and they no longer depend on providing their traditional services to make a living. Some anthropologists have considered them to be a specialised caste as opposed to a tribe or an ethnic group.

Kotas have their own unique language that belongs to the Dravidian language family but diverged from South Dravidian subfamily at some time before the common era (BCE). Their language was studied in detail by Murray Barnson Emeneau, a pioneer in the field of Dravidian linguistics. Their social institutions were distinct from mainstream Indian cultural norms and had some slight similarities to Todas and other tribal peoples in neighbouring Kerala and the prominent Nair caste. It was informed^{[clarification needed]} by a fraternal polygyny where possible. The religion of the Kota is unlike Hinduism; it worships non-anthropomorphic male deities and a female deity. Since the 1940s, many mainstream Hindu deities also have been adopted into the Kota pantheon and temples of Tamil style have been built to accommodate their worship. Kotas have specialised groups of priests to propitiate their deities on behalf of the group.^{[citation needed]}