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The great and savage forests of Mallenaddu

TNN | Mar 29, 2016, 12.36 AM IST

anavasi lie in the Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka, 24 km from the town of Sirsi, topographically in a region
known as Malenadu, which covers the western and eastern slopes of the Sahyadri mountain range, stretching over
portions of Belagavi, Chikkamagaluru, Shivamogga, Uttara Kannada, Kodagu and Hassan districts. Malenadu is
supposed to be a combination of words 'male' (forest) and 'nadu' (land) - the forest land. (Elliot, 1876: On Some
Remains of Antiquity at Hanagal, The Indian Antiquary, vol 5) Perhaps it was this forest that Hwen Ts'ang was referring to
when he wrote "from this, going north-west, we pass through a great forest which is infested with savage animals and desert";
Hwen Ts'ang was going from Kong-kien-na-pu-lo (Konkanapura or Banavasi) to the kingdom of Moholacha (Maharashtra).
We could dismiss the entire hypothesis that Hwen Ts'ang's Kong-kien-na-pu-lo or Konkanapura was Banavasi. But the
reference to forest with savage animals recurs almost four centuries later in Al Beruni's (10th-11th century CE) accounts of
India: "Again marching from Dhar southward, you come to the valley of Namiyya, 7 farsakh (1 farsakh is approximately 8 to
16 km) from Dhar; Mahratta-Desh, 18 farsakh; the province of Kunkan, and its capital Tana, on the sea coast, 25 farsakh.
...People relate that in the plains of Kunkan, called Danak, there lives an animal called 'sharava' (Skr Sarabha). ...It has the
shape of a buffalo, but is larger than a 'ganda' (rhinoceros)."
Three centuries later (1335 CE), Ibn Batuta writes about inaccessible mountains between Daulatabad and Kukan-Tana.
(Batuta, 1835: Rihla). Thana lies on the mainland to the east of the Mumbai archipelago. Its western edge along the Thane
Creek as well as the eastern flank of the archipelago is hilly and deeply forested. It should be noted that Hwen Ts'ang's Kongkien-na and Al Beruni's Kunkan, may not be geographically identical because in the intervening three centuries there had
been many ebbs and tides in the boundaries of Konkana. While Cunningham's Konkan (7th century CE) extended from
Vengurla to Kundapur, Duff's Concan (17th century CE) descended from Tapti to Sadashivgad.
Compare that with Jadunath Sarkar's description of the Maval, the Maratha homeland, which is the central counterpart of
Malenadu region (the northernmost foothills of Sahyadris are called Dangs). According to Sarkar "Four centuries ago (16th
century) the population of Maharashtra was very thin and forests covered much of the land." Forest was therefore the
dominant eco-system of the entire region covering the eastern slopes of the Sahyadris, and their foothills, and it remained so
for a long time - Hwen Ts'ang and Shivaji were almost ten centuries apart.
At this point it may be interesting to note how the word Male (Kannada/Tamil for rain, as well as for forest) is part of
contemporary Konkani vocabulary in the form of malapavasa - the rain coming from the mala.
Of the many theories that have been proposed for the etymology of the word Konkan, one is 'kong plus van' equivalent to
'Kongvan' equivalent to 'Konkan' (the Kong forest or the forest where the Kong tribe lived), in the style of Gondvan (the Gond
forest) or Dandakaranya (the Dandak forest). Somehow, therefore, forest seems to be associated strongly with Konkan.

But far more interesting is the theory that supposes that the word Konkan is derived from the Tamil word 'kon-hanam'
meaning 'the forest wherein it is legitimate to plunder'. Tamil Sangam literature refers to Konkan when describing the kingdom
of Nannan the 'woman-killer'. Nannan's territory is supposed to have included in it both Tulu and Konkan. (Aiyangar, 1923:
Some Contributions of South India to Indian Culture). The 'legitimate to plunder' idea seems to have come from the Tamil
perspective of the territory between Aryavarta and the Tamilakam (the Tamil country at the extreme south of the Indian
peninsula, composed mainly of the four kingdoms of Cheras, Ays, Pandyas and the Cholas). Ayyangar fixes the northern limit
of Tamilakam as a "belt of country beginning with Pulikat on the east coast and terminating with the Kalyanpuri river, the
northern limit of Canara on the west coast." Just as the River Narmada marked the southern boundary of Aryavarta, rivers
Krishna and Tungabhadra marked the northern boundary of Tamilakam. The people inhabiting the territory between the two
were named 'vadukar' by the Tamils. Vadukar simply means 'northerners'. But the Tamils distinguished between these
'northerners' who were just outside their territory, and those to the north of Narmada.
The latter were called 'vadavar', also meaning 'northerners'. This term was synonymous with Arya. Sangam literature
describes 'vadukar' as robbers by profession habitually engaged in cattle-lifting. According to one Tamil poet 'vadukar' kept
cruel dogs; another Sangam poet refers to the sacrifices that these people offered in thanksgiving for the capture of herds of
cattle. (Aiyangar, 1923: Some Contributions of South India to Indian Culture)

(The opinions expressed in this article are the writer's own. The writer is currently engaged in the research of the Konkani
language)