KORAWA, a broken nation scattered through out the south of India. In the Peninsula their subdivisions are-1. The Bajantri, called Gaon Korawa or Sonai Kolawuru ; 2. Tiling Korawa or Kasbi Korawa or Kunchi Korawar ; 3. Kolla Korawa ; and 4. Soli Korawa, a race of the Southern Mahratta country. The Yerkal Korawa or Kunchi Kari are wanderers, of whose original country they themselves retain no knowledge in their traditions. They style themselves Yerkal, and they give the same appellation to the language in which they hold communication with each other. Their ostensible occupation is bird snaring. With the exception of the cow, almost all animals are used by them as food. Their dead are burned. A wild Korawar tribe dwell near the Pakhal Lake and the Godavery. The taco are in Canarese called Kora-varana, Koram a-ravanu, or Koravanu, and are there in three branches, — Kalla Koramar, who are professed thieves ; Walaga Koramar, who are musicians ; and Hakki Koramar, who are a migratory race, and subsist by basket-making, catching birds, etc. In Mysore the Korawar are hill and forest tribes, and have a dialect of their own.
In the south the Yerkala are recognised as Koravar. They cat game and flesh meat of all kinds, in which they are by no means nice. The jungle herbs, roots, and fruits also furnish them with food. The majority of them pretend to fortune-telling. They also take to basket, mat, and wooden comb-making,—for the former two they use the midribs and leaves of the date palm,—and occasionally work as coolies. Some times wealthy men of the tribe settle down in places, engage in cultivation, and hold land in puttali like other cultivators. As a rule, they wear only as clothing a small piece of cloth. Their habits are decidedly predatory. They form bands of dacoits and thieves. Their huts com prise mats set upon three sticks, and, when on the more, these they roll up, and place on the backs of their donkeys, and are thus easily transported from place to place. They rear pigs, and are partial to their flesh. They also keep poultry and dogs. Their pack animals consist chiefly of donkeys ; occasionally some of them have a few horned cattle, and perhaps a few goats also. A similar tribe, under the name of Upu Koravar, was described by Dr. Bilderbeck as found in South Arcot. Their language seems to be a medley of Tamil and Telugu. Most of them have some household god, which they carry about with them in their constant travels. Polygamy prevails.
Marriages are only contracted between adults. The ceremony is usually conducted on a Sunday, pre ceded by a puja on the Saturday. Rice mixed with turmeric is bound on the heads of the married couple, and when the marriage string is tied round the wife's neck the ceremony is complete. Marriages within certain degrees of relationship aro not allowed, and widow remarriages not permitted ; they may occasionally live in con cubinage. A custom prevails among them by which the first two daughters of a family may be claimed by the maternal uncle as wives for his sons. The value of a wife is fixed at 20 pagodas. The maternal uncle's right to the two first daughters is valued at 8 out of 20 pagodas, and is carried out thus : If he urge his preferential claim, and marry his own aons to his nieces, ho pays for each only 12 pagodas, and, similarly, if he, from not having sons, or any other cause, forego his claim, he receives 8 pagodas of the 20 paid to the girl's parents by anybody else who may marry them. The value of a wife differs in different places. In some places they are very much less, and in others again only nominal. In Nellore the Yerkala or Telugu Koravar pledge their daughters to creditors, who may either marry them or give them away. When the Yerkala goes to jail, his wife lives with another man of her tribe. On release he reclaims his wife and children, if any are born in the interval. In North Arcot, Koravars mortgage unmarried daughters, who become the absolute property of the mortgagee till the debt is discharged. In Chingleput, the practice of mortgaging their wives exists among the Upu Koravars. In South Arcot it is said not to exist. In Tanjore it is common. Male children become the property of the mort gagee, females that of the husband of the woman pledged. In Madura theysell the wife for 50 rupees outright, and the husband can never reclaim her. Wives and daughters are both pretty freely pledged ; disputes are settled by panchayets or arbitrations. Each gang or community comprises many distinct families, each having their own family names, and, like the Hindus, they form undivided families. Brown and Campbell define the word Yerkalavandlu. Wilson defines Kulaver, Yeraver, and Kuraver, etc.—Dr. Shortt, Madras Journ. Literal. and Science, 1851, p. 4 ; Asst. Surg.-Gen. Edward Balfour ; 1Vilson's Glossary ; Madras Times, 8th Jan. 1873.