Irula

Clans and Kinship

Noble and Jebadhas describe the Irula as an endogamous community with twelve exogamous patrilineal clans, called kulam in Tamil: Devanan, Kalkatti, Koduvan, Kuppan, Kurunagan, Ollaga, Peratha, Porigan, Pungan, Samban, Uppigan and Vellagai, with a further clan associated with the thudai tree. A clan may not marry into its 'brother' clans, so the unit of exogamy is wider than one clan, and each clan is paired with a 'friendship' clan whose members help at rites of passage. The preferred marriage is with the mother's brother's daughter. A hamlet or village (motta) has a headman (gaundan or muppan) who mediates rather than rules, a go-between (bandari) and a priest (pujari). Members of the Samban clan, or of the Koduvan clan when a Samban is involved, act as mediators, and the Kalkatti clan traditionally supplies priests.

The twelve clans of the Nilgiri Irula as listed by William A. Noble and A. William Jebadhas (Encyclopedia of World Cultures), in their order, with the variant spellings they give; they add a clan associated with the thudai tree (Ilex denticulata) without naming it. Clan names of the plains Irula were not found in the sources used.

In the Official Lists

• Scheduled Tribe

  Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Puducherry

  Listed as: Irular

  Kerala: 'Irular, Irulan'. Puducherry: 'Irular (including Vettai and Vettaikaran)', a listing made after the 2011 census. Karnataka also has a separate entry, 'Iruliga'.

In Tamil Nadu the Irular are one of the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs). The listings were checked against the Census 2011 tables and Wikipedia's compilation of the order; the Puducherry listing is later than the census and should be checked against the current order.

Checked on 2026-11-07 against the sources below. The lists are amended from time to time and can differ by district; for a certificate, the current order or the state's list is what counts.

Name and Origin

Thurston (1909) derives the name from the Tamil irul, darkness; Noble and Jebadhas suggest that the Nilgiri Irula were named after a wild yam they gathered. Thurston records that the Irulas of Chingleput were also called Villiyan, bowmen, and gives a legend from the Mackenzie manuscripts in which the Irulas and other forest peoples descend from a sage who lived among them and taught them to worship the goddess Kanniamma. Many lowland Irula live near old megalithic sites, and Noble and Jebadhas leave open whether they descend from the people who raised them.

History

Francis Buchanan described the Nilgiri Irula in 1800, the earliest account in English (Noble and Jebadhas). From the land settlements of the 1880s the government restricted shifting cultivation (kottukadu), and as tea and coffee estates spread over the outer slopes most upland Irula became plantation workers. From 1974 the Tamil Nadu government gave Irula families on the eastern slopes small plots for coffee and tea gardens, and irrigated rice farming spread in the lowland villages. The Irula are still known for gathering and selling honey and medicinal plants.

Faith and Worship

The Irula worship Vishnu as Ranga or Rangaswami, whose temple stands on Rangaswami Betta, a peak on the eastern slopes of the Nilgiris; an Irula priest from Kallampalayam officiates there, and Thurston records an Irula pujari wearing the Vishnu mark. They also worship Muneshwar and the goddess Mari (Mariamma), and the spirits of clan and family ancestors, whose stones are kept in clan shrines (koppa manai) near the burial grounds. Many Irula also worship at Hindu temples and go on pilgrimage to Sabarimala (Noble and Jebadhas).

Deities named in the sources: Rangaswami, Mariamma, Muneshwar

Customs

A marriage is arranged once the families are sure the bride is of a clan open to the groom; the bride-price is paid before elders of both sides and the facilitator (jatthi), and the groom ties a tali provided by his maternal uncle. A couple sets up house near the husband's people, and a wife usually goes back to her parents' home in the seventh month of pregnancy until the child is born. After three failed attempts at reconciliation the headman and council may grant a divorce. Each clan has its own burial ground. Irula herbalists are consulted by their neighbours, and the Irula have a dance of their own, arakkole atam (Noble and Jebadhas).

Festivals